Analysis of The Master-Player

Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906



AN old worn harp that had been played
Till all its strings were loose and frayed,
Joy, Hate and Fear, each one essayed,
To play. But each in turn had found
No sweet responsiveness of sound
Then Love the Master-Player came
With heaving breast and eyes aflame;
The harp he took all undismayed,
Smote on its strings, still strange to song,
And brought forth music sweet and strong.


Scheme AAABBCCADD
Poetic Form Etheree  (30%)
Tetractys  (20%)
Metre 11111111 11110101 1101111 11110111 11010011 11010101 11010101 011111 11111111 01110101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 377
Words 70
Sentences 3
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 10
Lines Amount 10
Letters per line (avg) 30
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 300
Words per stanza (avg) 68
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 18, 2023

21 sec read
132

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…

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