Retort

Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906



'THOU art a fool,' said my head to my heart,
'Indeed, the greatest of fools thou art,
To be led astray by the trick of a tress,
By a smiling face or a ribbon smart;'
And my heart was in sore distress.
Then Phyllis came by, and her face was fair,
The light gleamed soft on her raven hair;
And her lips were blooming a rosy red.
Then my heart spoke out with a right bold air:
'Thou art worse than a fool, O head!'

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 02, 2023

26 sec read
253

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABABCCDCD
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 410
Words 90
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 10

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…

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    "Retort" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 25 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/28847/retort>.

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