A Dirge for a Righteous Kitten
Ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong.Here lies a kitten good, who keptA kitten's proper place.He stole no pantry eatables,Nor scratched the baby's face.He let the alley-cats alone.He had no yowling vice.His shirt was always laundried well,He freed the house of mice.Until his death he had not causedHis little mistress tears,He wore his ribbon prettily,He washed behind his ears.Ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong.
Words in this poem
- stole n.
- A long, loose garment reaching to the feet. [AS. stole, L. stola, Gr. stall. See Stall.]
- prettily adv.
- In a pretty manner.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Dirge for a Righteous Kitten is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Congo, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #1021; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Vachel Lindsay, A Dirge for a Righteous Kitten, in The Congo and Other Poems (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1021, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lindsay-congo/a-dirge-for-a-righteous-kitten.html, id L00943.
Form and metre
A Dirge for a Righteous Kitten is 14 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.7 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 14% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
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-B-B-C-C-D-DA dongA · kept · placeB · eatables · faceB · alone · viceC · well · miceC · caused · tearsD · prettily · earsD · dongA
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 iambic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong. | 6 | ······ |
| Here lies a kitten good, who kept | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| A kitten's proper place. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| He stole no pantry eatables, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Nor scratched the baby's face. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| He let the alley-cats alone. | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| He had no yowling vice. | 6 | ······ |
| His shirt was always laundried well, | 7 | ···/··· |
| He freed the house of mice. | 6 | ······ |
| Until his death he had not caused | 8 | ········ |
| His little mistress tears, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| He wore his ribbon prettily, | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| He washed behind his ears. | 6 | ······ |
| Ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong. | 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.