Analysis of I'd Rather Have Habits Than Clothes

Gelett Burgess 1866 (Boston) – 1951



I'd Rather Have Habits Than Clothes,
For that's where my intellect shows.
And as for my hair,
Do you think I should care
To comb it at night with my toes?

I'd rather have ears than a nose,
I'd rather have fingers than toes,
But as for my hair:
I'm glad it's all there;
I'll be awfully sad when it goes.

I wish that my Room had a Floor;
I don't so much care for a Door,
But this walking around
Without touching the ground
Is getting to be quite a bore!


Scheme XABBA AABBA CCDDC
Poetic Form Tetractys  (47%)
Metre 11011011 1111101 01111 111111 11111111 11011101 11011011 11111 11111 11101111 11111101 11111101 111001 011001 11011101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 445
Words 94
Sentences 5
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 5, 5, 5
Lines Amount 15
Letters per line (avg) 23
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 113
Words per stanza (avg) 31
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 14, 2023

30 sec read
435

Gelett Burgess

Frank Gelett Burgess was an artist, art critic, poet, author and humorist. more…

All Gelett Burgess poems | Gelett Burgess Books

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