Absent-Mindedness
Absent-minded Edward BrownDrove his lady into town;Suddenly the horse fell down!Mrs. Ned(Newly wed)Threw a fit and lay for dead.
Edward, lacking in resource,Chafed the fetlocks of his horse,Sitting with unpleasant force(Just like lead)On the headOf the prostrate Mrs. Ned.
She demanded a divorce,Jealous of the favoured horse.Edward had it shot, of course.
Years have sped;She and NedDrive a motor now instead.
Words in this poem
- drove n.
- A collection of cattle driven, or cattle collected for driving; a number of animals, as oxen, sheep, or swine, driven in a body. [AS. draf, fr. drifan to drive. See Drive.]
- resource n.
- That to which one resorts orr on which one depends for supply or support; means of overcoming a difficulty; resort; expedient. [F. ressource, fr. OF. ressourdre, resourdre, to spring forth or up again; pref. re- re- + sourdre to spring forth. See Source.]
- favoured a.
- Countenanced; aided; regarded with kidness; as, a favored friend.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Absent-Mindedness is in the public domain. This text is taken from Verse and Worse, Project Gutenberg ebook #36702; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Harry Graham, Absent-Mindedness, in Verse and Worse (1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #36702, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/graham-verse-and-worse/absent-mindedness.html, id L23330.
Form and metre
Absent-Mindedness is 18 lines in 4 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is AAABBB, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
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 AAABBB brownA · townA · downA · nedB · wedB · deadB
- 2 AAABBB resourceA · horseA · forceA · leadB · headB · nedB
- 3 AAA divorceA · horseA · courseA
- 4 AAA spedA · nedA · insteadA
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Absent-minded Edward Brown | 7 | /˘/˘/˘· |
| Drove his lady into town; | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Suddenly the horse fell down! | 7 | /˘˘···· |
| Mrs. Ned | 3 | /˘· |
| (Newly wed) | 3 | /˘· |
| Threw a fit and lay for dead. | 7 | ······· |
| Edward, lacking in resource, | 7 | /˘/˘·/˘ |
| Chafed the fetlocks of his horse, | 7 | ······· |
| Sitting with unpleasant force | 7 | /˘·˘/˘· |
| (Just like lead) | 3 | ··· |
| On the head | 3 | ··· |
| Of the prostrate Mrs. Ned. | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| She demanded a divorce, | 7 | ·˘/˘·˘/ |
| Jealous of the favoured horse. | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Edward had it shot, of course. | 7 | /˘····· |
| Years have sped; | 3 | ··· |
| She and Ned | 3 | ··· |
| Drive a motor now instead. | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
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.