Analysis of Bessie Brown, M.D.
Samuel Minturn Peck 1854 – 1938
'Twas April when she came to town;
The birds had come; the bees were swarming.
Her name, she said, was Doctor Brown;
I saw at once that she was charming.
She took a cottage tinted green,
Where dewy roses loved to mingle;
And on the door, next day, was seen
A dainty little shingle.
Her hair was like an amber wreath;
Her hat was darker, to enhance it.
The violet eyes that glowed beneath
Were brighter than her keenest lancet,
The beauties of her glove and gown
The sweetest rhyme would fail to utter.
Ere she had been a day in town
The town was in a flutter.
The gallants viewed her feet and hands,
And swore they never saw such wee things;
The gossips met in purring bands,
And tore her piecemeal o'er the tea-things.
The former drank the Doctor's health
With clinking cups, the gay carousers;
The latter watched her door by stealth,
Just like so many mousers.
But Doctor Bessie went her way,
Unmindful of the spiteful cronies,
And drove her buggy every day
Behind a dashing pair of ponies.
Her flower-like face so bright she bore
I hoped that time might never wilt her.
The way she tripped across the floor
Was better than a philter.
Her patients thronged the village street;
Her snowy slate was always quite full.
Some said her bitters tasted sweet,
And some pronounced her pills delightful.
'Twas strange, I knew not what it meant,
She seemed a nymph from Eldorado;
Where'er she came, where'er she went,
Grief lost its gloomy shadow.
Like all the rest I, too, grew ill;
My aching heart there was no quelling.
I tremble at my doctor's bill,
And lo! the items still are swelling.
The drugs I've drunk you'd weep to hear!
They've quite enriched the fair concocter,
And I'm a ruined man, I fear,
Unless, I wed the Doctor!
Scheme | ABABCDCD EXEXAFAF GHGHIGIX JKJKLFLF MXMDNONO PBPBXFXF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11011111 011101010 01111101 111111110 11010101 110101110 01011111 0101010 01111101 011101011 010011101 010101010 01010101 010111110 11110101 0110010 0110101 011101111 01010101 010110011 01010101 111011 01010111 1111010 11010101 1101010 010101001 010101110 010111111 111111010 01110101 110101 01010101 01011111 11010101 010101010 11111111 11011010 10111011 111101 11011111 110111110 11011101 010101110 01111111 1101011 01010111 0111010 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,690 |
Words | 319 |
Sentences | 19 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 224 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 52 |
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Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:38 min read
- 1 View
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"Bessie Brown, M.D." Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 5 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/56613/bessie-brown%2C-m.d.>.
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