Analysis of Sersmith the Dentist
Edgar Lee Masters 1868 (Garnett) – 1950 (Elkins Park)
Do you think that odes and sermons,
And the ringing of church bells,
And the blood of old men and young men,
Martyred for the truth they saw
With eyes made bright by faith in God,
Accomplished the world's great reformations?
Do you think that the Battle Hymn of the Republic
Would have been heard if the chattel slave
Had crowned the dominant dollar,
In spite of Whitney's cotton gin,
And steam and rolling mills and iron
And telegraphs and white free labor?
Do you think that Daisy Fraser
Had been put out and driven out
If the canning works had never needed
Her little house and lot?
Or do you think the poker room
Of Johnnie Taylor, and Burchard's bar
Had been closed up if the money lost
And spent for beer had not been turned,
By closing them, to Thomas Rhodes
For larger sales of shoes and blankets,
And children's cloaks and gold-oak cradles?
Why, a moral truth is a hollow tooth
Which must be propped with gold.
Scheme | ABCDEAFGHIJHHKLMNOPQRSTUV |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11111010 0010111 001111011 1010111 11111101 0100111 1111010110010 111110101 11010010 01110101 010101010 0101110 11111010 11110101 1010111010 010101 11110101 11010011 111110101 01111111 11011101 110111010 010101110 1010110101 111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 903 |
Words | 172 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 25 |
Lines Amount | 25 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 729 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 170 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 52 sec read
- 73 Views
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