Cliff Klingenhagen
Cliff Klingenhagen had me in to dineWith him one day; and after soup and meat,And all the other things there were to eat,Cliff took two glasses and filled one with wineAnd one with wormwood. Then, without a signFor me to choose at all, he took the draughtOf bitterness himself, and lightly quaffedIt off, and said the other one was mine.
And when I asked him what the deuce he meantBy doing that, he only looked at meAnd grinned, and said it was a way of his.And though I know the fellow, I have spentLong time a-wondering when I shall beAs happy as Cliff Klingenhagen is.
Words in this poem
- dine v. i.
- To eat the principal regular meal of the day; to take dinner. [F. dîner, OF. disner, LL. disnare, contr. fr. an assumed disjunare; dis- + an assumed junare (OF. juner) to fast, for L. jejunare, fr. jejunus fasting. See Jeju]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Cliff Klingenhagen is in the public domain. This text is taken from Children of the Night, Project Gutenberg ebook #313; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edwin Arlington Robinson, Cliff Klingenhagen, in The Children of the Night (1897), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #313, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/robinson-children-of-night/cliff-klingenhagen.html, id L08000.
Form and metre
Cliff Klingenhagen is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 97% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.0 syllables. 64% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABBAACCA dineA · meatB · eatB · wineA · signA · draughtC · quaffedC · mineA
- 2 ABCABC meantA · meB · hisC · spentA · beB · isC
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Cliff Klingenhagen had me in to dine | 10 | ·········· |
| With him one day; and after soup and meat, | 10 | ·········· |
| And all the other things there were to eat, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Cliff took two glasses and filled one with wine | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| And one with wormwood. Then, without a sign | 10 | ···/······ |
| For me to choose at all, he took the draught | 10 | ·········· |
| Of bitterness himself, and lightly quaffed | 10 | ·/˘˘˘/·/˘· |
| It off, and said the other one was mine. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And when I asked him what the deuce he meant | 10 | ·········· |
| By doing that, he only looked at me | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| And grinned, and said it was a way of his. | 10 | ·········· |
| And though I know the fellow, I have spent | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Long time a-wondering when I shall be | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| As happy as Cliff Klingenhagen is. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
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.