Analysis of Here's to the Mice!

Vachel Lindsay 1879 (Springfield) – 1931 (Springfield)



(Written with the hope that the socialists might yet dethrone Kaiser and Czar.)

Here's to the mice that scare the lions,
Creeping into their cages.
Here's to the fairy mice that bite
The elephants fat and wise:
Hidden in the hay-pile while the elephant thunder rages.
Here's to the scurrying, timid mice
Through whom the proud cause dies.

Here's to the seeming accident
When all is planned and working,
All the flywheels turning,
Not a vassal shirking.
Here's to the hidden tunneling thing
That brings the mountain's groans.
Here's to the midnight scamps that gnaw,
Gnawing away the thrones.


Scheme X ABXCBXC XDDDDXXA
Poetic Form
Metre 101011010011011001 110111010 1001110 11010111 0100101 100011101001010 110100101 110111 11010100 1111010 10110 101010 110101001 110101 1101111 100101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 584
Words 102
Sentences 8
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 1, 7, 8
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 29
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 157
Words per stanza (avg) 33
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

32 sec read
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Vachel Lindsay

Nicholas Vachel Lindsay was an American poet. more…

All Vachel Lindsay poems | Vachel Lindsay Books

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    A poem consisting of 14 lines, typically with a specific rhyme scheme, is called a _______.
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