Mima
Jemima is my name,But oh, I have another;My father always calls me Meg,And so do Bob and mother;Only my sister, jealous ofThe strands of my bright hair,'Jemima - Mima - Mima!'Calls, mocking, up the stair.
About this text
Mima is in the public domain. This text is taken from Peacock Pie, a Book of Rhymes, Project Gutenberg ebook #3753; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Walter de la Mare, Mima, in Peacock Pie (1913), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #3753, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/de-la-mare-peacock-pie/mima.html, id L12562.
Form and metre
Mima is 8 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.9 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 12% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 -A-A-B-B name · anotherA · meg · motherA · of · hairB · mima · stairB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Jemima is my name, | 6 | ˘/˘··· |
| But oh, I have another; | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| My father always calls me Meg, | 8 | ·/˘/···· |
| And so do Bob and mother; | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Only my sister, jealous of | 8 | /˘·/˘/˘· |
| The strands of my bright hair, | 6 | ······ |
| 'Jemima - Mima - Mima!' | 7 | ˘/˘···· |
| Calls, mocking, up the stair. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.