Analysis of The Rivals
Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906
'TWAS three an' thirty year ago,
I When I was ruther young, you know,
I had my last an' only fight
About a gal one summer night.
'Twas me an' Zekel Johnson; Zeke
'N' me 'd be'n spattin' 'bout a week,
Each of us tryin' his best to show
That he was Liza Jones's beau.
We couldn't neither prove the thing,
Fur she was fur too sharp to fling
One over fur the other one
An' by so doin' stop the fun
That we chaps didn't have the sense
To see she got at our expense,
But that's the way a feller does,
Fur boys is fools an' allus was.
An' when they's females in the game
I reckon men's about the same.
Well, Zeke an' me went on that way
An' fussed an' quarrelled day by day;
While Liza, mindin' not the fuss,
Jest kep' a-goin' with both of us,
Tell we pore chaps, that's Zeke an' me,
Was jest plum mad with jealousy.
Well, fur a time we kep' our places,
An' only showed by frownin' faces
An' looks 'at well our meanin' boded
How full o' fight we both was loaded.
At last it come, the thing broke out,
An' this is how it come about.
One night ('t was fair, you'll all agree)
I got Eliza's company,
An' leavin' Zekel in the lurch,
Went trottin' off with her to church.
An' jest as we had took our seat
(Eliza lookin' fair an' sweet),
Why, I jest couldn't help but grin
When Zekel come a-bouncin' in
As furious as the law allows.
He'd jest be'n up to Liza's house,
To find her gone, then come to church
To have this end put to his search.
I guess I laffed that meetin' through,
An' not a mortal word I knew
Of what the preacher preached er read
Er what the choir sung er said.
Fur every time I'd turn my head
I couldn't skeercely help but see
'At Zekel had his eye on me.
An' he 'ud sort o' turn an' twist
An' grind his teeth an' shake his fist.
I laughed, fur la! the hull church seen us,
An' knowed that suthin' was between us.
Well, meetin' out, we started hum,
I sorter feelin' what would come.
We'd jest got out, when up stepped Zeke,
An' said, 'Scuse me, I'd like to speak
To you a minute.' 'Cert,' said I —
A-nudgin' Liza on the sly
An' laughin' in my sleeve with glee,
I asked her, please, to pardon me.
We walked away a step er two,
Jest to git out o' Liza's view,
An' then Zeke said, 'I want to know
Ef you think you're Eliza's beau,
An' 'at I'm goin' to let her go
Hum with sich a chap as you?'
An' I said bold, 'You bet I do.'
Then Zekel, sneerin', said 'at he
Didn't want to hender me.
But then he 'lowed the gal was his
An' 'at he guessed he knowed his biz,
An' wasn't feared o' all my kin
With all my friends an' chums throwed in.
Some other things he mentioned there
That no born man could no ways bear
Er think o' ca'mly tryin' to stan'
Ef Zeke had be'n the bigges' man
In town, an' not the leanest runt
'At time an' labor ever stunt.
An' so I let my fist go 'bim,'
I thought I'd mos' nigh finished him.
But Zekel didn't take it so.
He jest ducked down an' dodged my blow
An' then come back at me so hard,
I guess I must 'a' hurt the yard,
Er spilet the grass plot where I fell,
An' sakes alive it hurt me; well,
It wouldn't be'n so bad, you see,
But he jest kep' a-hittin' me.
An' I hit back an' kicked an' pawed,
But 't seemed 'twas mostly air I clawed,
While Zekel used his science well
A-makin' every motion tell.
He punched an' hit, why, goodness lands,
Seemed like he had a dozen hands.
Well, afterwhile they stopped the fuss,
An' some one kindly parted us.
All beat an' cuffed an' clawed an' scratched,
An' needin' both our faces patched,
Each started hum a different way;
An' what o' Liza, do you say,
Why, Liza — little humbug — dern her,
Why, she'd gone home with Hiram Turner.
Scheme | AABBCCAADDEEFFGHIIJJKKLLGGBMNNLLOOPPQQRSOOTTUUULLVVKKWWCCXXLLTTAAATTLLYYQQZZ1 1 B2 I3 AA4 4 5 5 LL6 6 5 5 7 7 KK8 8 JJ9 9 |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11110101 111110111 11111101 01011101 1111101 111111101 11111111 11110101 11010101 11111111 11010101 1111101 11110101 111111001 11010101 1111111 1111001 11010101 11111111 1111111 1101101 11011111 11111111 11111100 1101111010 11011110 11111011 111111110 11110111 11111101 111111101 111100 111001 1111011 111111101 0101111 11110111 111010 110010101 11111111 11011111 11111111 1111111 11010111 11010101 01010101 110011111 1101111 1111111 11111111 11111111 111101111 11111011 1111101 1101111 11111111 11111111 11010111 0110101 1101111 11011101 11010101 1111111 11111111 111111 11111101 1110111 11111111 111111 101111 11110111 11111111 11011111 11111110 11011101 11111111 0111111 11111011 01110101 11110101 11111111 11111101 1110111 11111111 11111111 11110101 01011111 11011111 110111111 1111011 11111111 111110111 1111101 010100101 11111101 11110101 111101 11110101 11111111 11110101 110101001 11110111 11010110 111111010 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 3,509 |
Words | 731 |
Sentences | 31 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 104 |
Lines Amount | 104 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 2,616 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 724 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 27, 2023
- 3:47 min read
- 99 Views
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"The Rivals" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/28944/the-rivals>.
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