Philosophy
I been t'inkin' 'bout de preachah; whut he said de othah night,'Bout hit bein' people's dooty, fu' to keep dey faces bright;How one ought to live so pleasant dat ouah tempah never riles,Meetin' evahbody roun' us wid ouah very nicest smiles.
Dat 's all right, I ain't a-sputin' not a t'ing dat soun's lak fac',But you don't ketch folks a-grinnin' wid a misery in de back;An' you don't fin' dem a-smilin' w'en dey 's hongry ez kin be,Leastways, dat 's how human natur' allus seems to 'pear to me.
We is mos' all putty likely fu' to have our little cares,An' I think we 'se doin' fus' rate w'en we jes' go long and bears,Widout breakin' up ouah faces in a sickly so't o' grin,W'en we knows dat in ouah innards we is p'intly mad ez sin.
Oh dey 's times fu' bein' pleasant an' fu' goin' smilin' roun','Cause I don't believe in people allus totin' roun' a frown,But it's easy 'nough to titter w'en de stew is smokin' hot,But hit's mighty ha'd to giggle w'en dey's nuffin' in de pot.
Words in this poem
- ought p. p.
- Was or were under obligation to pay; owed. [Orig. the preterit of the verb to owe. OE. oughte, aughte, ahte, AS. ahte. sq. root110. See Owe.]
- ketch n.
- An almost obsolete form of vessel, with a mainmast and a mizzenmast, -- usually from one hundred to two hundred and fifty tons burden. Bomb ketch. See under Bomb. [Prob. corrupted fr. Turk. qaiq : cf. F. caiche. Cf. Caïque.]
- folks n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
- leastways adv.
- At least; at all events. At leastways, or At leastwise, at least. Fuller.
- grin n.
- A snare; a gin. [AS. grin.]
- giggle v. t.
- To laugh with short catches of the breath or voice; to laugh in a light, affected, or silly manner; to titter with childish levity. [Akin to gaggle: cf. OD. ghichelen, G. kichern.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Philosophy 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, Philosophy, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/philosophy.html, id L00778.
Form and metre
Philosophy is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 3 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is trochaic octameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 81%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 15.3 syllables.
See other poems in trochaic octameter.
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 nightA · brightA · rilesB · smilesB
- 2 AABB facA · backA · beB · meB
- 3 AABB caresA · bearsA · grinB · sinB
- 4 --AA roun · frown · hotA · potA
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 octameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I been t'inkin' 'bout de preachah; whut he said de othah night, | 15 | ··············· |
| 'Bout hit bein' people's dooty, fu' to keep dey faces bright; | 15 | ··/˘/˘······/˘· |
| How one ought to live so pleasant dat ouah tempah never riles, | 14 | ······/˘····/· |
| Meetin' evahbody roun' us wid ouah very nicest smiles. | 15 | ··········/˘/˘· |
| Dat 's all right, I ain't a-sputin' not a t'ing dat soun's lak fac', | 16 | ················ |
| But you don't ketch folks a-grinnin' wid a misery in de back; | 15 | ··········/˘··· |
| An' you don't fin' dem a-smilin' w'en dey 's hongry ez kin be, | 16 | ················ |
| Leastways, dat 's how human natur' allus seems to 'pear to me. | 16 | ·····/˘········· |
| We is mos' all putty likely fu' to have our little cares, | 15 | ····/˘/˘···//˘· |
| An' I think we 'se doin' fus' rate w'en we jes' go long and bears, | 17 | ····///˘········· |
| Widout breakin' up ouah faces in a sickly so't o' grin, | 15 | ······/˘··/˘··· |
| W'en we knows dat in ouah innards we is p'intly mad ez sin. | 15 | ······/˘······· |
| Oh dey 's times fu' bein' pleasant an' fu' goin' smilin' roun', | 16 | ·····/˘/˘··/˘··· |
| 'Cause I don't believe in people allus totin' roun' a frown, | 15 | ···˘/·/˘······· |
| But it's easy 'nough to titter w'en de stew is smokin' hot, | 15 | ··/˘··/˘······· |
| But hit's mighty ha'd to giggle w'en dey's nuffin' in de pot. | 15 | ··/˘··/˘······· |
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.