The Madman: His Parables and Poems
Gibran's first English book, 1918, a madman's parables and short poems.
What this poem is
The Madman, His Parables and Poems is a book written by Kahlil Gibran, which was published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf in 1918, with illustrations reproduced from original drawings by the author. It was Gibran's first book in English to be published, also marking the beginning of the second phase of Gibran's career. May Ziadeh, with whom Gibran had been corresponding since 1912, reviewed it in Al-Hilal, a magazine in Egypt.
Adapted from the Wikipedia article “The Madman (book)” (revision 1314572068), used under CC BY-SA 4.0. Laurel's own notes and measurements are not from Wikipedia.
Measured across the book
Across its 25 lines, 90% of stressed syllables fall on the beat (95% interval 83% to 96%). Alliteration runs at 1.33 times what shuffling the words would give (0.40 observed against 0.30 expected). 48% of the lines have a feminine ending.
Baselines and intervals are described in the methods.
Contents
About this text
Public domain. Text from The Madman: His Parables and Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #5616. Free to read, print, copy and reuse.