Analysis of Cinderella.
Poor, pretty little thing she was,
The sweetest-faced of girls,
With eyes as blue as larkspurs,
And a mass of tossing curls;
But her step-mother had for her
Only blows and bitter words,
While she thought her own two ugly crows,
The whitest of all birds.
She was the little household drudge,
And wore a cotton gown,
While the sisters, clad in silk and satin,
Flaunted through the town.
When her work was done, her only place
Was the chimney-corner bench.
For which one called her "Cinderella,"
The other, "Cinder-wench."
But years went on, and Cinderella
Bloomed like a wild-wood rose,
In spite of all her kitchen-work,
And her common, dingy clothes;
While the two step-sisters, year by year,
Grew scrawnier and plainer;
Two peacocks, with their tails outspread,
Were never any vainer.
One day they got a note, a pink,
Sweet-scented, crested one,
Which was an invitation
To a ball, from the king's son.
Oh, then poor Cinderella
Had to starch, and iron, and plait,
And run of errands, frill and crimp,
And ruffle, early and late.
And when the ball-night came at last,
She helped to paint their faces,
To lace their satin shoes, and deck
Them up with flowers and laces;
Then watched their coach roll grandly
Out of sight; and, after that,
She sat down by the chimney,
In the cinders, with the cat,
And sobbed as if her heart would break.
Hot tears were on her lashes,
Her little hands got black with soot,
Her feet begrimed with ashes,
When right before her, on the hearth,
She knew not how nor why,
A little odd old woman stood,
And said, "Why do you cry?"
"It is so very lonely here,"
Poor Cinderella said,
And sobbed again. The little odd
Old woman bobbed her head,
And laughed a merry kind of laugh,
And whispered, "Is that all?
Wouldn't my little Cinderella
Like to go to the ball?
"Run to the garden, then, and fetch
A pumpkin, large and nice;
Go to the pantry shelf, and from
The mouse-traps get the mice;
Rats you will find in the rat-trap;
And, from the watering-pot,
Or from under the big, flat garden stone,
Six lizards must be got."
Nimble as crickets in the grass
She ran, till it was done,
And then God-mother stretched her wand
And touched them every one.
The pumpkin changed into a coach,
Which glittered as it rolled,
And the mice became six horses,
With harnesses of gold.
One rat a herald was, to blow
A trumpet in advance,
And the first blast that he sounded
Made the horses plunge and prance;
And the lizards were made footmen,
Because they were so spry;
And the old rat-coachman on the box
Wore jeweled livery.
And then on Cinderella's dress
The magic wand was laid,
And straight the dingy gown became
A glistening gold brocade.
The gems that shone upon her fingers
Nothing could surpass;
And on her dainty little feet
Were slippers made of glass.
"Be sure you get back here, my dear,
At twelve o'clock at night,"
Godmother said, and in a twinkling
She was out of sight.
When Cinderella reached the ball,
And entered at the door,
So beautiful a lady
None had ever seen before.
The Prince his admiration showed
In every word and glance;
He led her out to supper,
And he chose her for the dance;
But she kept in mind the warning
That her Godmother had given,
And left the ball, with all its charm.
At just half after eleven.
Next night there was another ball;
She helped her sisters twain
To pinch their waists, and curl their hair,
And paint their cheeks again.
Then came the fairy Godmother,
And, with her wand, once more
Arrayed her out in greater splendor
Even than before.
The coach and six, with gay outriders,
Bore her through the street,
And a crowd was gathered round to look,
The lady was so sweet,--
So light of heart, and face, and mien,
As happy children are;
And when her foot stepped down,
Her slipper twinkled like a star.
Again the Prince chose only her
For waltz or tete-a-tete;
So swift the minutes flew she did not
Dream it could be late,
But all at once, remembering
What her Godmother had said,
And hearing twelve begin to strike
Upon the clock, she fled.
Swift as a swallow on the wing
She darted, but, alas!
Dropped from one flying foot the tiny
Slipper made of glass;
But she got away, and well it was
She did, for in a trice
Her coach changed to a pumpkin,
And her horses became mice;
And back into the cinder dress
Was changed the gold brocade!
The prince secured the slipper,
And this proclamation made:
That the country should be searched,
And any lady, far or wide,
Who could get the slipper on her foot,
Should straightway be his bride.
So every lady tried it,
With her "Mys!" and "Ahs!" and "Ohs!"
And Cinderella's sisters pared
Their heels, and pared their toes,--
But all in vain! Nobody's foot
Was small enough for it,
Till Cinderella tried it,
And it was a perfect fit.
Then the royal heralds hardly
Knew what it was best to do,
When from out her tattered pocket
Forth she drew the other shoe,
While the eyelids on the larkspur eyes
Dropped down a snowy vail,
And the sisters turned from pale to red,
And then from red to pale,
And in hateful anger cried, and stormed,
And scolded, and all that,
And a courtier, without thinking,
Tittered out behind his hat.
For here was all the evidence
The Prince had asked, complete,
Two little slippers made of glass,
Fitting two little feet.
So the Prince, with all his retinue,
Came there to claim his wife;
And he promised he would love her
With devotion all his life.
At the marriage there was splendid
Music, dancing, wedding cake;
And he kept the slipper as a treasure
Ever, for her sake.
Scheme | ABABCDED XFGFXHIH IEXXJCKC XGGGIKXK KLXLMKMK NXKLXOKO XKKKXPIP XQXQXKXK RGKGXKLK XSKSFOXM TKXKURKR JKVKPWKW KSCSVGXG PXXXCWCW UKXKXXFX CKKKVKXK VRMRAQXQ TKCKKKKK KEKEKKKK MKKYXZKZ KKVKXKRK Y1 C1 KNCN |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11010111 010111 111111 0011101 10110110 1010101 111011101 010111 1101011 010101 1010101010 10101 101110101 1010101 11110010 010101 11110010 110111 01110101 0010101 101110111 11010 111111 010101 11110101 110101 111010 1011011 111010 11101001 01110101 0101001 01011111 1111110 11110101 11110010 1111110 1110101 1111010 0010101 01110111 1101010 01011111 011110 11010101 111111 01011101 011111 11110101 10101 01010101 110101 01010111 010111 10110010 111101 11010101 010101 11010101 011101 11110011 0101001 1110011101 110111 10110001 111111 01110101 0111001 01010101 110111 00101110 110011 11010111 010001 00111110 1010101 0010011 011011 001110101 11100 01111 010111 01010101 0100101 011101010 10101 01010101 010111 11111111 110111 101000100 11111 1010101 010101 1100010 1110101 0110101 0100101 1101110 0110101 11101010 1010110 01011111 11110010 11110101 110101 11110111 011101 1101010 010111 010101010 10101 01011110 10101 001110111 010111 11110101 110101 010111 01010101 01011100 111101 110101111 11111 11110100 101011 01010111 010111 11010101 110101 111101010 10111 111010111 111001 0111010 0010011 01010101 110101 0101010 010101 1010111 01010111 111010101 11111 11001011 1010101 01101 110111 110111 110111 101011 0110011 10101010 1111111 11101010 1110101 1011011 110101 001011111 011111 001010101 010011 001000110 110111 11110100 011101 11010111 101101 10111110 111111 01101110 1010111 10101110 1010101 0110101010 10101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 6,105 |
Words | 1,023 |
Sentences | 38 |
Stanzas | 22 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 176 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 197 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 46 |
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"Cinderella." Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/54292/cinderella.>.
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