Analysis of The Singular Sangfroid Of Baby Bunting

Guy Wetmore Carryl 1873 (New York City) – 1904 (New York City)



Batholomew Benjamin Bunting
Had only three passions in life,
And one of the trio was hunting,
The others his babe and his wife.
And always, so rigid his habits,
He frolicked at home until two,
And then started hunting for rabbits,
And hunted till fall of the dew.

Belinda Bellonia Bunting,
Thus widowed for half of the day,
Her duty maternal confronting,
With baby would patiently play.
When thus was her energy wasted,
A patented food she'd dispense.
(She had bought it the day that they pasted
The posters all over her fence.)

But Bonaparte Buckingham Bunting,
The infant thus blindly adored,
Replied to her worship by grunting,
Which showed he was brutally bored.
'T was little he cared for the troubles
Of life. Like a crab on the sands,
From his sweet little mouth he blew bubbles,
And threatened the air with his hands.

Bartholomew Benjamin Bunting
One night, as his wife let him in,
Produced as the fruit of his hunting
A cottontail's velvety skin,
Which, seeing young Bonaparte wriggle,
He gave him without a demur,
And the babe with an aqueous giggle
He swallowed the whole of the fur!

Belinda Bellonia Bunting
Behaved like a consummate loon:
Her offspring in frenzy confronting
She screamed herself mottled maroon:
She felt of his vertebrae spinal,
Expecting he'd surely succomb,
And gave him one vigorous, final,
Hard prod in the pit of his tum.

But Bonaparte Buckingham Bunting,
At first but a trifle perplexed,
By a change in his manner of grunting
Soon showed he was horribly vexed.
He displayed not a sign of repentance
But spoke, in a dignified tone,
The only consecutive sentence
He uttered. 'T was: 'Lemme alone.'

The Moral: The parent that uses
Precaution his folly regrets:
An infant gets all that he chooses,
An infant chews all that he gets.
And colics? He constantly has 'em
So long as his food is the best,
But he'll swallow with never a spasm
What ostriches couldn't digest.


Scheme ababcdcd Aeaexfxf Agaghihi ajajklkl Amamknkn Aoaopqpq rsrsntnt
Poetic Form
Metre 110010 11011001 01101110 01011011 01110110 1111011 011010110 01011101 010110 11011101 010010010 11011001 111010010 01001101 1111011110 01011001 1101010 01011001 011010110 11111001 1110111010 11101101 1111011110 01001111 01010010 11111110 011011110 011001 11011010 11101001 0011110010 11001101 010110 01101001 01010010 11011001 11111010 0101101 011110010 11001111 1101010 11101001 1010110110 11111001 1011011010 1100101 010010010 110111001 010010110 01011001 110111110 11011111 01110011 11111101 1110110010 11001001
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,907
Words 334
Sentences 17
Stanzas 7
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8
Lines Amount 56
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 215
Words per stanza (avg) 47
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:41 min read
87

Guy Wetmore Carryl

Guy Wetmore Carryl was an American humorist and poet more…

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