Analysis of To The Road
Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906
Cool is the wind, for the summer is waning,
Who 's for the road?
Sun-flecked and soft, where the dead leaves are raining,
Who 's for the road?
Knapsack and alpenstock press hand and shoulder,
Prick of the brier and roll of the boulder;
This be your lot till the season grow older;
Who 's for the road?
Up and away in the hush of the morning,
Who 's for the road?
Vagabond he, all conventions a-scorning,
Who 's for the road?
Music of warblers so merrily singing,
Draughts from the rill from the roadside up-springing,
Nectar of grapes from the vines lowly swinging,
These on the road.
Now every house is a hut or a hovel,
Come to the road:
Mankind and moles in the dark love to grovel,
But to the road.
Throw off the loads that are bending you double;
Love is for life, only labor is trouble;
Truce to the town, whose best gift is a bubble:
Come to the road!
Scheme | aBaBcccB aBaBaaab dBdbdddB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11011010110 11101 11011011110 11101 10111010 11010011010 11111010110 11101 10010011010 11101 1001101001 11101 10110110010 1101101110 10111011010 1101 110011011010 1101 11010011110 1101 11011110110 11111010110 11011111010 1101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 843 |
Words | 167 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 219 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 55 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 50 sec read
- 73 Views
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"To The Road" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/28984/to-the-road>.
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