Analysis of In New Orleans
Eugene Field 1850 (St. Louis) – 1895 (Chicago)
'Twas in the Crescent City not long ago befell
The tear-compelling incident I now propose to tell;
So come, my sweet collector friends, and listen while I sing
Unto your delectation this brief, pathetic thing-
No lyric pitched in vaunting key, but just a requiem
Of blowing twenty dollars in by nine o'clock a.m.
Let critic folk the poet's use of vulgar slang upbraid,
But, when I'm speaking by the card, I call a spade a spade;
And I, who have been touched of that same mania, myself,
Am well aware that, when it comes to parting with his pelf,
The curio collector is so blindly lost in sin
That he doesn't spend his money-he simply blows it in!
In Royal street (near Conti) there's a lovely curio-shop,
And there, one balmy, fateful morn, it was my chance to stop;
To stop was hesitation-in a moment I was lost-
That
kind of hesitation does not hesitate at cost!
I spied a pewter tankard there, and, my! it was a gem-
And the clock in old St. Louis told the hour of eight a.m.!
Three quaint Bohemian bottles, too, of yellow and of green,
Cut in archaic fashion that I ne'er before had seen;
A lovely, hideous platter wreathed about with pink and rose,
With its curious depression into which the gravy flows;
Two dainty silver salts-oh, there was no resisting
them
-
And I'd blown in twenty dollars by nine o'clock a. m.
With twenty dollars, one who is a prudent man, indeed,
Can buy the wealth of useful things his wife and children need;
Shoes, stockings, knickerbockers, gloves, bibs, nursing-bottles, caps,
A gown-
the
gown for which his spouse too long has pined, perhaps!
These and ten thousand other spectres harrow and condemn
The man who's blown in twenty by nine o'clock a.m.
Oh, mean advantage conscience takes (and one that I abhor!)
In asking one this question: 'What
did
you buy it for?'
Why doesn't conscience ply its blessed trade
before
the act,
Before
one's cussedness becomes a bald, accomplished fact-
Before
one's fallen victim to the Tempter's stratagem
And blown in twenty dollars by nine o'clock a.m.?
Ah me! now that the deed is done, how penitent I am!
I
was
a roaring lion-behold a bleating lamb!
I've packed and shipped those precious things to that more precious wife
Who shares with our sweet babes the strange vicissitudes of life,
While he who, in his folly, gave up his store of wealth
Is far away, and means to keep his distance-for his health!
Scheme | aabbcd eeffgg hhx xxid jjkkbi i llmxxmid nxxneNo No Ncd dxxdppqq |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 1001010110101 01010100110111 11110101010111 1011110101 1101011110100 1101010011011 1101010111011 11110101110101 0111111111001 11011111110111 01000101110101 11101110110110 010111010101001 01110101111111 1110100010111 1 11010111011 11010101011101 001011101010111 110100101110011 10010101110111 010100101011101 111000100110101 1101011111010 1 1 01101010110101 11010111010101 11011101110101 1101001110101 01 0 11111111101 1011010110001 011101011011 11010101011101 01011101 1 1111 110101111 01 01 01 1101010101 01 11010101100 010101011011 11110111110011 1 1 0101001011 11011101111101 111101101010011 1110110111111 11010111110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,337 |
Words | 434 |
Sentences | 22 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 3, 4, 8, 8, 7, 2, 3, 8 |
Lines Amount | 55 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 184 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 43 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:14 min read
- 87 Views
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"In New Orleans" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/12976/in-new-orleans>.
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