Analysis of "Howdy, Honey, Howdy!"

Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906



Do' a-stan'in' on a jar, fiah a-shinin' thoo,
Ol' folks drowsin' 'roun' de place, wide awake is Lou,
W'en I tap, she answeh, an' I see huh 'mence to grin,
"Howdy, honey, howdy, won't you step right in?"

Den I step erpon de log layin' at de do',
Bless de Lawd, huh mammy an' huh pap's done 'menced to sno',
Now's de time, ef evah, ef I's gwine to try an' win,
"Howdy, honey, howdy, won't you step right in?"

No use playin' on de aidge, trimblin' on de brink,
Wen a body love a gal, tell huh whut he t'ink;
W'en huh hea't is open fu' de love you gwine to gin,
Pull yo'se'f togethah, suh, an' step right in.

Sweetes' imbitation dat a body evah hyeahed,
Sweetah den de music of a lovesick mockin'-bird,
Comin' f'om de gal you loves bettah den yo' kin,
"Howdy, honey, howdy, won't you step right in?"

At de gate o' heaven w'en de storm o' life is pas',
'Spec' I 'll be a-stan'in', 'twell de Mastah say at las',
"Hyeah he stan' all weary, but he winned his fight wid sin.
Howdy, honey, howdy, won't you step right in?"


Scheme xabB abbB ccbb ddbB xxbB
Poetic Form Quatrain  (40%)
Metre 10101011011 11111110111 100111111111111 10101011110 1111111111 111111111111 111111111111 10101011110 1111111111 1010101111111 1001111101111111 1111111110 11101011 1111010111 1111111111 10101011110 1111101001111111 1111010111111 1111101111111 10101011110
Closest metre Iambic heptameter
Characters 1,005
Words 205
Sentences 7
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 10
Letters per stanza (avg) 142
Words per stanza (avg) 39
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Submitted on August 03, 2020

Modified on March 14, 2023

1:05 min read
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Paul Laurence Dunbar

Paul Laurence Dunbar was a seminal American poet of the late 19th and early 20th centuries Dunbar gained national recognition for his 1896 Lyrics of a Lowly Life one poem in the collection being Ode to Ethiopia more…

All Paul Laurence Dunbar poems | Paul Laurence Dunbar Books

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