Analysis of A Romance Of The Saw-Dust.
George Augustus Baker Jr 1849 ( New York City, New York) – 1906 ( New York City, New York)
Suthin' to put in a story!
I couldn't think of a thing,
'N' it's nigh unto thirty year now
Since fust I went in the ring.
"The life excitin'?" Thunder!
"Variety," did you say?
You must have cur'us notions
'Bout circuses, anyway.
The things that look so risky
Aint nothin' to us but biz.
"Accidents" falls and sich like?
Sometimes, in course, there is.
But it's only a slip, or a stumble,
Some feller laid out flat,
It don't take more'n a second;
There aint no story in that.
'N' like as not, the tumble
Don't do no harm at all:
There's one gal here I tell yer,
She got an awful fall.
You know her Ma'am'selle Ida
She's Jimmy Barnet's wife,
The prettiest little woman
You ever see in your life.
They was lovers when they was young uns,
No more'n two hands high.
She nussed Jim through a fever once,
When the doctors swore he'd die.
I taught 'em both the motions;
She never know'd no fear,
And they've done the trapeze together
For more'n a couple o' year.
Last Summer we took on a Spaniard,
A mis'rable kind of cuss,
Spry feller but awful tempered,
Always a-makin' a fuss.
He wanted to marry Ida
His chance was pretty slim,
He did his best, but bless yer,
She'd never go back on Jim.
He acted up so foolish,
That Jim, one day, got riled
'N' guv him a reg'lar whalin';
That druv the Spaniard wild.
He talked like he was crazy,
'N' raved around, and swore
He'd kill 'em both; but Jim just laughed
He'd heer'd such talk before.
One day, when we was showin'
In a little country town,
Jim mashed his hand with a hatchet,
Drivin' a tent stake down.
He couldn't work that night, nohow,
But the "trap" hed got to be done.
The Spaniard said he'd try it
'N' they had to take him or none.
I knew Jim didn't like it,
'N' Ide looked scared and white
"Look out for me, boys," she whispered,
"I'm goin' to fall to-night;"
Then she looked up with a shiver,
At the trapeze swingin' there,
A couple of bars and a rope or two
Forty feet up in the air.
But up she clumb he arter
Stood up, but how Ide shook,
Then the Spaniard yelled like a devil,
"Now look, Jim Barnet! look!"
With that he jumped 'n' gripped her;
She fought, but he broke her hold,
Grabbed at the rope, 'n' missed it
Off of the bar they rolled,
Clinched, 'n' Ide a screamin';
Thud! they struck the ground;
I turned all sick and dizzy,
'N' everything went round.
How still it were for a second!
It seemed like an hour 'n' then
The women was all a screechin',
'N' the ring was full of men.
Poor Jim was stoopin' to lift her,
But flopped right down, 'n' said,
Sez he, "Her lips is movin'!
She's breathin'! She isn't dead!"
For sure! he'd fallen under;
It kinder broke her fall;
Except the scare and a broken arm,
She wasn't hurt at all.
"The Spaniard?" Oh, it killed him;
It broke his cussed neck.
But nobody cried their eyes out,
As near as I reckeleck.
She married Jim soon arter,
They're doin' the trapeze still;
So, yer see, as I was sayin',
These falls don't always kill.
'N' as for things excitin'
To put in a story, well,
I'd really like to oblige yer,
But then there aint nothin' to tell.
Scheme | Text too long |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1110010 1101101 111101011 1111001 01110 0100111 1111110 110010 0111110 1101111 1001011 010111 1110011010 110111 11111010 1111001 1111010 111111 1111111 111101 11011110 11011 01001010 1101011 111011111 111111 11110101 1010111 1111010 110111 011001010 11101011 110111010 01111 11011010 101001 11011010 111101 1111111 1101111 1101110 111111 11101110 110101 1111110 110101 11111111 111101 111111 0010101 11111010 10111 1101111 10111111 0101111 11111111 1111011 111101 11111110 111111 11111010 100111 0101100111 1011001 1111110 111111 101011010 111101 1111110 1111101 1101111 110111 11101 11101 1111010 11011 11101010 11111011 0101101 1011111 1111110 111111 110111 111101 1111010 110101 010100101 110111 0101111 11111 111111 11111 1101110 110011 1111111 11111 11111 1100101 11011011 11111011 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,942 |
Words | 592 |
Sentences | 40 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 100 |
Lines Amount | 100 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 2,238 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 585 |
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Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 3:05 min read
- 6 Views
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"A Romance Of The Saw-Dust." Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 23 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/55330/a-romance-of-the-saw-dust.>.
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