Analysis of Learning To Read
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper 1825 – 1911
Very soon the Yankee teachers
Came down and set up school;
But, oh! how the Rebs did hate it, -
It was agin' their rule.
Our masters always tried to hide
Book learning from our eyes;
Knowledge did'nt agree with slavery -
'Twould make us all too wise.
But some of us would try to steal
A little from the book,
And put the words together,
And learn by hook or crook.
I remember Uncle Caldwell,
Who took pot liquor fat
And greased the pages of his book,
And hid it in his hat.
And had his master ever seen
The leaves upon his head,
He'd have thought them greasy papers,
But nothing to be read.
And there was Mr. Turner's Ben,
Who heard the children spell,
And picked the words right up by heart,
And learned to read 'em well.
Well, the Northern folks kept sending
The Yankee teachers down;
And they stood right up and helped us,
Though Rebs did sneer and frown.
And I longed to read my Bible,
For precious words it said;
But when I begun to learn it,
Folks just shook their heads,
And said there is no use trying,
Oh! Chloe, you're too late;
But as I was rising sixty,
I had no time to wait.
So I got a pair of glasses,
And straight to work I went,
And never stopped till I could read
The hymns and Testament.
Then I got a little cabin
A place to call my own -
And I felt as independent
As the queen upon her throne.
Scheme | ABCB XDED XFXF GHFH XIAI XGXG JKXK XICX JLEL XXIM XNMN |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (82%) |
Metre | 10101010 110111 11101111 110111 10101111 1101101 101011100 111111 11111111 010101 0101010 011111 10101010 111101 01010111 011011 01110101 010111 11111010 110111 01110101 110101 01011111 011111 10101110 010101 01111011 111101 01111110 110111 11101111 11111 01111110 110111 11111010 111111 11101110 011111 01011111 010100 11101010 011111 0111010 1010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,278 |
Words | 263 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 11 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 44 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 91 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 24 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:20 min read
- 92 Views
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"Learning To Read" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 3 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/13726/learning-to-read>.
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