Analysis of A piteous plaint
Eugene Field 1850 (St. Louis) – 1895 (Chicago)
I cannot eat my porridge,
I weary of my play;
No longer can I sleep at night,
No longer romp by day!
Though forty pounds was once my weight,
I'm shy of thirty now;
I pine, I wither and I fade
Through love of Martha Clow.
As she rolled by this morning
I heard the nurse girl say:
"She weighs just twenty-seven pounds
And she's one year old to-day."
I threw a kiss that nestled
In the curls upon her brow,
But she never turned to thank me--
That bouncing Martha Clow!
She ought to know I love her,
For I've told her that I do;
And I've brought her nuts and apples,
And sometimes candy, too!
I'd drag her in my little cart
If her mother would allow
That delicate attention
To her daughter, Martha Clow.
O Martha! pretty Martha!
Will you always be so cold?
Will you always be as cruel
As you are at one-year-old?
Must your two-year-old admirer
Pine as hopelessly as now
For a fond reciprocation
Of his love for Martha Clow?
You smile on Bernard Rogers
And on little Harry Knott;
You play with them at peek-a-boo
All in the Waller Lot!
Wildly I gnash my new-cut teeth
And beat my throbbing brow,
When I behold the coquetry
Of heartless Martha Clow!
I cannot eat my porridge,
Nor for my play care I;
Upon the floor and porch and lawn
My toys neglected lie;
But on the air of Halsted street
I breathe this solemn vow:
"Though she be false, I will be true
To pretty Martha Clow!"
Scheme | Abxbxcxd xbxbxcxd efxfxcxd xgxgeccd xhfhxced Aixixcfd |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101110 110111 11011111 110111 11011111 111101 11110011 111101 1111110 110111 11110101 0111111 1101110 0010101 11101111 110101 1111110 1110111 01101010 001101 11001101 1010101 1100010 1010101 1101010 111111 1111110 1111111 11111010 1110011 1011 1111101 1110110 0110101 11111101 100101 10111111 011101 110101 110101 1101110 111111 01010101 110101 11011101 111101 11111111 110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,356 |
Words | 268 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 176 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 44 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:21 min read
- 88 Views
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"A piteous plaint" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 9 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/12879/a-piteous-plaint>.
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