Analysis of The Lawyers' Ways
Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906
I've been list'nin' to them lawyers
In the court house up the street,
An' I've come to the conclusion
That I'm most completely beat.
Fust one feller riz to argy,
An' he boldly waded in
As he dressed the tremblin' pris'ner
In a coat o' deep-dyed sin.
Why, he painted him all over
In a hue o' blackest crime,
An' he smeared his reputation
With the thickest kind o' grime,
Tell I found myself a-wond'rin',
In a misty way and dim,
How the Lord had come to fashion
Sich an awful man as him.
Then the other lawyer started,
An' with brimmin', tearful eyes,
Said his client was a martyr
That was brought to sacrifice.
An' he give to that same pris'ner
Every blessed human grace,
Tell I saw the light o' virtue
Fairly shinin' from his face.
Then I own 'at I was puzzled
How sich things could rightly be;
An' this aggervatin' question
Seems to keep a-puzzlin' me.
So, will some one please inform me,
An' this mystery unroll--
How an angel an' a devil
Can persess the self-same soul?
Scheme | ABCBDEFEFGCGCHCHIJFKFLMLNOCOOPPP |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111110 0011101 11110010 1110101 1110111 1110100 111011 0011111 11101110 0011101 1111010 1010111 111101 0010101 10111110 1110111 10101010 111101 11101010 111110 1111111 1001101 11101110 101111 11111110 1111101 11110 111011 11111011 111001 11101010 110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,022 |
Words | 184 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 32 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 737 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 182 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 57 sec read
- 136 Views
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"The Lawyers' Ways" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/28908/the-lawyers%27-ways>.
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