Analysis of My Angeline
Harry Bache Smith 1860 ( Buffalo, New York, ) – 1936 (Atlantic City, New Jersey,)
She kept her secret well, oh, yes,
Her hideous secret well.
We together were cast, I knew not her past;
For how was I to tell?
I married her, guileless lamb I was;
I'd have died for her sweet sake.
How could I have known that my Angeline
Had been a Human Snake?
Ah, we had been wed but a week or two
When I found her quite a wreck:
Her limbs were tied in a double bow-knot
At the back of her swan-like neck.
No curse there sprang to my pallid lips,
Nor did I reproach her then;
I calmly untied my bonny bride
And straightened her out again.
My Angeline! My Angeline!
Why didst disturb my mind serene?
My well-beloved circus queen,
My Human Snake, my Angeline!
At night I'd wake at the midnight hour,
With a weird and haunted feeling,
And there she'd be, in her robe de nuit,
A-walking upon the ceiling.
She said she was being "the human fly,"
And she'd lift me up from beneath
By a section slight of my garb of night,
Which she held in her pearly teeth.
For the sweet, sweet sake of the Human Snake
I'd have stood this conduct shady;
But she skipped in the end with an old, old friend,
An eminent bearded lady.
But, oh, at night, when my slumber's light,
Regret comes o'er me stealing;
For I miss the sound of those little feet,
As they pattered along the ceiling.
My Angeline! My Angeline!
Why didst disturb my mind serene?
My well-beloved circus queen,
My Human Snake, my Angeline!
Scheme | xabaxcdcxexexfxf DGGDxhbhxijickxkjhxh DGGD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (23%) |
Metre | 11010111 0100101 10100111101 111111 110010111 1111011 1111111100 110101 1111110111 1110101 0101001011 10110111 111111101 1110101 110011101 0100101 11001100 11011101 1101101 11011100 111110110 10101010 011100111 01001010 1111100101 01111101 1010111111 11100101 1011110101 11110110 11100111111 11001010 11111111 01110110 1110111101 111001010 11001100 11011101 1101101 11011100 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,374 |
Words | 273 |
Sentences | 18 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 16, 20, 4 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 352 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 88 |
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Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:23 min read
- 5 Views
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"My Angeline" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/55516/my-angeline>.
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