Analysis of Villanelle Of Things Amusing

Frank Gelett Burgess 1866 ( Boston, Massachusetts,) – 1951 ( Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, )



These are the things that make me laugh
Life's a preposterous farce, say I!
And I've missed of too many jokes by half.

The high-heeled antics of colt and calf,
The men who think they can act, and try
These are the things that make me laugh.

The hard-boiled poses in photograph,
The groom still wearing his wedding tie
And I've missed of too many jokes by half!

These are the bubbles I gayly quaff
With the rank conceit of the new-born fly
These are the things that make me laugh!

For, Heaven help me! I needs must chaff,
And people will tickle me till I die
And I've missed of too many jokes by half!

So write me down in my epitaph
As one too fond of his health to cry
These are the things that make me laugh,
And I've missed of too many jokes by half!


Scheme AbA abA abA abA abA abAA
Poetic Form Villanelle 
Metre 11011111 100100111 0111110111 011101101 011111101 11011111 01110010 011101101 0111110111 11010111 1010110111 11011111 110111111 0101101111 0111110111 11110110 111111111 11011111 0111110111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 749
Words 154
Sentences 8
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 4
Lines Amount 19
Letters per line (avg) 31
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 97
Words per stanza (avg) 25
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Submitted on August 03, 2020

Modified on March 05, 2023

47 sec read
4

Frank Gelett Burgess

Frank Gelett Burgess (January 30, 1866 – September 18, 1951) was an artist, art critic, poet, author and humorist. An important figure in the San Francisco Bay Area literary renaissance of the 1890s, particularly through his iconoclastic little magazine, The Lark, he is best known as a writer of nonsense verse, such as "The Purple Cow", and for introducing French modern art to the United States in an essay titled "The Wild Men of Paris". He was the author of the popular Goops books, and he coined the term blurb.  more…

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