A Plea
Treat me nice, Miss Mandy Jane,Treat me nice.Dough my love has tu'ned my brain,Treat me nice.I ain't done a t'ing to shame,Lovahs all ac's jes' de same;Don't you know we ain't to blame?Treat me nice!
Cose I know I 's talkin' wild;Treat me nice;I cain't talk no bettah, child,Treat me nice;Whut a pusson gwine to do,Wen he come a-cou'tin' youAll a-trimblin' thoo and thoo?Please be nice.
Reckon I mus' go de pafOthahs do:Lovahs lingah, ladies laff;Mebbe youDo' mean all the things you say,An' pu'haps some latah dayW'en I baig you ha'd, you mayTreat me nice!
Words in this poem
- jane n.
- A coin of Genoa; any small coin. [LL. Janua Genoa; L. Genua, also OE. Jean.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Plea is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Project Gutenberg ebook #18338; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Paul Laurence Dunbar, A Plea, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/a-plea.html, id L00707.
Form and metre
A Plea is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABABCCCB, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.5 syllables. 21% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic 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 ABABCCCB janeA · niceB · brainA · niceB · shameC · sameC · blameC · niceB
- 2 ABABCCCB wildA · niceB · childA · niceB · doC · youC · thooC · niceB
- 3 -A-ABBB- paf · doA · laff · youA · sayB · dayB · mayB · nice
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Treat me nice, Miss Mandy Jane, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Treat me nice. | 3 | ··· |
| Dough my love has tu'ned my brain, | 7 | ······· |
| Treat me nice. | 3 | ··· |
| I ain't done a t'ing to shame, | 7 | ······· |
| Lovahs all ac's jes' de same; | 7 | ······· |
| Don't you know we ain't to blame? | 7 | ······· |
| Treat me nice! | 3 | ··· |
| Cose I know I 's talkin' wild; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Treat me nice; | 3 | ··· |
| I cain't talk no bettah, child, | 7 | ······· |
| Treat me nice; | 3 | ··· |
| Whut a pusson gwine to do, | 7 | ······· |
| Wen he come a-cou'tin' you | 7 | ······· |
| All a-trimblin' thoo and thoo? | 7 | ······· |
| Please be nice. | 3 | ··· |
| Reckon I mus' go de paf | 7 | /˘····· |
| Othahs do: | 3 | ··· |
| Lovahs lingah, ladies laff; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Mebbe you | 2 | ·· |
| Do' mean all the things you say, | 7 | ······· |
| An' pu'haps some latah day | 7 | ······· |
| W'en I baig you ha'd, you may | 7 | ······· |
| Treat me nice! | 3 | ··· |
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.