Analysis of A Dost O' Blues
James Whitcomb Riley 1849 (Greenfield) – 1916 (Indianapolis)
I' got no patience with blues at all!
And I ust to kindo talk
Aginst 'em, and claim, 'tel along last Fall,
They was none in the fambly stock;
But a nephew of mine, from Eelinoy,
That visited us last year,
He kindo convinct me differunt
While he was a-stayin' here.
Frum ever'-which way that blues is from,
They'd tackle him ever' ways;
They'd come to him in the night, and come
On Sundays, and rainy days;
They'd tackle him in corn-plantin' time,
And in harvest, and airly Fall,
But a dose 't of blues in the wintertime,
He 'lowed, was the worst of all!
Said all diseases that ever he had--
The mumps, er the rheumatiz--
Er ever'-other-day-aigger's bad
Purt' nigh as anything is!--
Er a cyarbuncle, say, on the back of his neck,
Er a felon on his thumb,--
But you keep the blues away from him,
And all o' the rest could come!
And he'd moan, 'They's nary a leaf below!
Ner a spear o' grass in sight!
And the whole wood-pile's clean under snow!
And the days is dark as night!
You can't go out--ner you can't stay in--
Lay down--stand up--ner set!'
And a tetch o' regular tyfoid-blues
Would double him jest clean shet!
I writ his parents a postal-kyard,
He could stay 'tel Spring-time come;
And Aprile first, as I rickollect,
Was the day we shipped him home!
Most o' his relatives, sence then,
Has either give up, er quit,
Er jest died off; but I understand
He's the same old color yit!
Scheme | AXAXBXCX DEDEFAFA CECXXDXD XCBCBCXC CDCXBCCC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (23%) |
Metre | 111101111 011111 110110111 1110011 10101111 1100111 11111 111011 11111111 1101101 111100101 110101 11010111 0010011 1011110010 1110111 1101011011 01001 0110111 111101 0011101111 0010111 111010111 0110111 0111100101 1011101 001111101 0011111 111111110 111111 001110011 1101111 111100101 1111111 0101111 1011111 11110011 1101101 01111101 1011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,352 |
Words | 264 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 205 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 52 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 08, 2023
- 1:22 min read
- 43 Views
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"A Dost O' Blues" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 5 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/20766/a-dost-o%27-blues>.
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