Johnny Speaks
The sand-man he's a jolly old fellow,His face is kind and his voice is mellow,But he makes your eyelids as heavy as lead,And then you got to go off to bed;I don't think I like the sand-man.
But I've been playing this livelong day;It does make a fellow so tired to play!Oh, my, I'm a-yawning right here before ma,I'm the sleepiest fellow that ever you saw.I think I do like the sand-man.
Words in this poem
- livelong a.
- Whole; entire; long in passing; -- used of time, as day or night, in adverbial phrases, and usually with a sense of tediousness. [For lifelong. Cf. Lifelong.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Johnny Speaks 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, Johnny Speaks, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/johnny-speaks.html, id L00804.
Form and metre
Johnny Speaks is 10 lines in 2 stanzas of 5 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 60% of the lines. 80% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.6 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in rhyming couplets.
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 AABB- fellowA · mellowA · leadB · bedB · man
- 2 AA--- dayA · playA · ma · saw · man
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The sand-man he's a jolly old fellow, | 10 | ·····/˘·/˘ |
| His face is kind and his voice is mellow, | 10 | ········/˘ |
| But he makes your eyelids as heavy as lead, | 11 | ····/··/˘·· |
| And then you got to go off to bed; | 9 | ········· |
| I don't think I like the sand-man. | 8 | ········ |
| But I've been playing this livelong day; | 9 | ···/˘·/˘· |
| It does make a fellow so tired to play! | 11 | ····/˘·/˘·· |
| Oh, my, I'm a-yawning right here before ma, | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| I'm the sleepiest fellow that ever you saw. | 11 | ····/˘·/˘·· |
| I think I do like the sand-man. | 8 | ········ |
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.