Jilted
Lucy done gone back on me,Dat's de way wif life.Evaht'ing was movin' free,T'ought I had my wife.Den some dahky comes along,Sings my gal a little song,Since den, evaht'ing's gone wrong,Evah day dey 's strife.
Did n't answeh me to-day,Wen I called huh name,Would you t'ink she 'd ac' dat wayWen I ain't to blame?Dat 's de way dese women do,Wen dey fin's a fellow true,Den dey 'buse him thoo an' thoo;Well, hit 's all de same.
Somep'n's wrong erbout my lung,An' I 's glad hit 's so.Doctah says 'at I 'll die young,Well, I wants to go!Whut 's de use o' livin' hyeah,Wen de gal you loves so deah,Goes back on you clean an' cleah--I sh'd like to know?
Words in this poem
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Jilted 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, Jilted, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/jilted.html, id L00675.
Form and metre
Jilted is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABCCCB. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.7 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
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 meA · lifeB · freeA · wifeB · alongC · songC · wrongC · strifeB
- 2 ABABCCCB dayA · nameB · wayA · blameB · doC · trueC · thooC · sameB
- 3 ABABCCCB lungA · soB · youngA · goB · hyeahC · deahC · cleahC · knowB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Lucy done gone back on me, | 7 | /˘····· |
| Dat's de way wif life. | 5 | ····· |
| Evaht'ing was movin' free, | 7 | ······· |
| T'ought I had my wife. | 5 | ····· |
| Den some dahky comes along, | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Sings my gal a little song, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Since den, evaht'ing's gone wrong, | 7 | ······· |
| Evah day dey 's strife. | 6 | ······ |
| Did n't answeh me to-day, | 7 | ······· |
| Wen I called huh name, | 5 | ····· |
| Would you t'ink she 'd ac' dat way | 9 | ·····//·· |
| Wen I ain't to blame? | 5 | ····· |
| Dat 's de way dese women do, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Wen dey fin's a fellow true, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Den dey 'buse him thoo an' thoo; | 7 | ······· |
| Well, hit 's all de same. | 6 | ······ |
| Somep'n's wrong erbout my lung, | 7 | ······· |
| An' I 's glad hit 's so. | 7 | ······· |
| Doctah says 'at I 'll die young, | 8 | ········ |
| Well, I wants to go! | 5 | ····· |
| Whut 's de use o' livin' hyeah, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Wen de gal you loves so deah, | 7 | ······· |
| Goes back on you clean an' cleah-- | 8 | ······/˘ |
| I sh'd like to know? | 5 | ····· |
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.