Analysis of Soliloquy Of A Turkey

Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906



Dey 's a so't o' threatenin' feelin' in de blowin' of de breeze,
An' I 's feelin' kin' o' squeamish in de night;
I 's a-walkin' 'roun' a-lookin' at de diffunt style o' trees,
An' a-measurin' dey thickness an' dey height.
Fu' dey 's somep'n mighty 'spicious in de looks de da'kies give,
Ez dey pass me an' my fambly on de groun,'
So it 'curs to me dat lakly, ef I caihs to try an' live,
It concehns me fu' to 'mence to look erroun'.

Dey's a cu'ious kin' o' shivah runnin' up an' down my back,
An' I feel my feddahs rufflin' all de day,
An' my laigs commence to trimble evah blessid step I mek;
W'en I sees a ax, I tu'ns my head away.
Folks is go'gin' me wid goodies, an' dey 's treatin' me wid caih,
An' I 's fat in spite of all dat I kin do.
I 's mistrus'ful of de kin'ness dat's erroun' me evahwhaih,
Fu' it 's jes' too good, an' frequent, to be true.

Snow 's a-fallin' on de medders, all erroun' me now is white,
But I 's still kep' on a-roostin' on de fence;
Isham comes an' feels my breas'bone, an' he hefted me las' night,
An' he 's gone erroun' a-grinnin' evah sence.
'T ain't de snow dat meks me shivah; 't ain't de col' dat meks me
shake;
'T ain't de wintah-time itse'f dat's 'fectin' me;
But I t'ink de time is comin', an' I 'd bettah mek a break,
Fu' to set wid Mistah Possum in his tree.

Wen you hyeah de da'kies singin', an' de quahtahs all is gay,
'T ain't de time fu' birds lak me to be 'erroun';
Wen de hick'ry chip is flyin', an' de log 's been ca'ied erway,
Den hit's dang'ous to be roostin' nigh he groun'.

Grin on, Isham! Sing on, da'kies! But I flop my wings an' go
Fu' de sheltah of de ve'y highest tree,
Fu' dey 's too much close ertention--an' dey's too much fallin' snow--
An' it's too nigh Chris'mus mo'nin' now fu' me.


Scheme ABABXCXC DEDEDFXF BXBAGHGHG ECEC XGCG
Poetic Form
Metre 11011111011111 11111110011 1101101111111 101110111 11111010111111 1111111111 11111111111111 111111111 101111111111 111111111 1110111011111 10011101111101 111111101111111 111101111111 11111111111 111111110111 110101110111111 11111101111 1011111111111 111110111 111111111111111 1 111111111 111111111111101 1111110011 1111111111111 11111111111 1111111111111 111111111 111011111111111 1111111101 11111111111101 111111111
Closest metre Iambic heptameter
Characters 1,720
Words 353
Sentences 12
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 9, 4, 4
Lines Amount 33
Letters per line (avg) 37
Words per line (avg) 11
Letters per stanza (avg) 244
Words per stanza (avg) 70
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:54 min read
40

Paul Laurence Dunbar

Paul Laurence Dunbar was a seminal American poet of the late 19th and early 20th centuries Dunbar gained national recognition for his 1896 Lyrics of a Lowly Life one poem in the collection being Ode to Ethiopia more…

All Paul Laurence Dunbar poems | Paul Laurence Dunbar Books

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