The Visitor
Little lady at de do',W'y you stan' dey knockin'?Nevah seen you ac' befo'In er way so shockin'.Don' you know de sin it isFu' to git my temper rizWen I 's got de rheumatizAn' my jints is lockin'?
No, ol' Miss ain't sont you down,Don' you tell no story;I been seed you hangin' 'roun'Dis hyeah te'itory.You des come fu' me to tellYou a tale, an' I ain'--well--Look hyeah, what is dat I smell?Steamin' victuals? Glory!
Come in, Missy, how you do?Come up by de fiah,I was jokin', chile, wid you;Bring dat basket nighah.Huh uh, ain't dat lak ol' Miss,Sen'in' me a feas' lak dis?Rheumatiz cain't stop my bliss,Case I's feelin' spryah.
Chicken meat an' gravy, too,Hot an' still a-heatin';Good ol' sweet pertater stew;Missy b'lieves in treatin'.Des set down, you blessed chile,Daddy got to t'ink a while,Den a story mek you smileWen he git thoo eatin'.
Words in this poem
- missy n.
- An affectionate, or contemptuous, form of miss; a young girl; a miss.
- daddy n.
- Diminutive of Dad.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Visitor 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, The Visitor, in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/the-visitor.html, id L00722.
Form and metre
The Visitor is 32 lines in 4 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.7 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 16% 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 -A-ABB-A do · knockinA · befo · shockinA · isB · rizB · rheumatiz · lockinA
- 2 -A-ABBBA down · storyA · roun · te'itoryA · tellB · wellB · smellB · gloryA
- 3 A-A-BBB- doA · fiah · youA · nighah · missB · disB · blissB · spryah
- 4 ABAB-CCB tooA · heatinB · stewA · treatinB · chile · whileC · smileC · eatinB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Little lady at de do', | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| W'y you stan' dey knockin'? | 6 | ······ |
| Nevah seen you ac' befo' | 8 | ····//·· |
| In er way so shockin'. | 6 | ······ |
| Don' you know de sin it is | 7 | ······· |
| Fu' to git my temper riz | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Wen I 's got de rheumatiz | 8 | ········ |
| An' my jints is lockin'? | 6 | ······ |
| No, ol' Miss ain't sont you down, | 7 | ······· |
| Don' you tell no story; | 6 | ····/˘ |
| I been seed you hangin' 'roun' | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Dis hyeah te'itory. | 5 | ····· |
| You des come fu' me to tell | 7 | ······· |
| You a tale, an' I ain'--well-- | 7 | ······· |
| Look hyeah, what is dat I smell? | 7 | ······· |
| Steamin' victuals? Glory! | 6 | ··/˘/˘ |
| Come in, Missy, how you do? | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Come up by de fiah, | 5 | ····· |
| I was jokin', chile, wid you; | 8 | ····/˘·· |
| Bring dat basket nighah. | 6 | ··/˘·· |
| Huh uh, ain't dat lak ol' Miss, | 7 | ······· |
| Sen'in' me a feas' lak dis? | 7 | ······· |
| Rheumatiz cain't stop my bliss, | 7 | ······· |
| Case I's feelin' spryah. | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Chicken meat an' gravy, too, | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Hot an' still a-heatin'; | 6 | ······ |
| Good ol' sweet pertater stew; | 7 | ······· |
| Missy b'lieves in treatin'. | 6 | /˘···· |
| Des set down, you blessed chile, | 8 | ·····˘/˘ |
| Daddy got to t'ink a while, | 7 | /˘····· |
| Den a story mek you smile | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Wen he git thoo eatin'. | 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.