Analysis of A Gotham Garden of Verses

Franklin P. Adams 1881 (Chicago, Illinois) – 1960 (New York City, New York)



In summer when the days are hot
The subway is delayed a lot;
In winter, quite the selfsame thing;
In autumn also, and in spring.

And does it not seem strange to you
That transportation is askew
In this--I pray, restrain your mirth!--
In this, the Greatest Town on Earth?

All night long and every night
The neighbors dance for my delight;
I hear the people dance and sing
Like practically anything.

Women and men and girls and boys,
All making curious kinds of noise
And dancing in so weird a way,
I never saw the like by day.

So loud a show was never heard
As that which yesternight occurred:
They danced and sang, as I have said,
As I lay wakeful in my bed.

They shout and cry and yell and laugh
And play upon the phonograph;
And endlessly I count the sheep,
Endeavouring to fall asleep.

It is very nice to think
This town is full of meat and drink;
That is, I'd think it very nice
If my pappa but had the price.

This town is so full of a number of folks,
I'm sure there will always be matter for jokes.


Scheme AABB CCDD EEBB FFGG HHII JJKK LLMM NN
Poetic Form Etheree  (33%)
Metre 01010111 0110101 0101011 01010001 01111111 1010101 01110111 01010111 11101001 01011101 11010101 110010 10010101 110100111 01001101 11010111 11011101 111101 11011111 1111011 11010101 0101010 01001101 11101 1110111 11111101 11111101 11101101 11111101011 1111111011
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,013
Words 203
Sentences 10
Stanzas 8
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 2
Lines Amount 30
Letters per line (avg) 26
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 97
Words per stanza (avg) 25
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:01 min read
55

Franklin P. Adams

Franklin Pierce Adams was an American columnist known as Franklin P. Adams and by his initials F. P. A.. Famed for his wit, he is best known for his newspaper column, "The Conning Tower", and his appearances as a regular panelist on radio's Information Please. A prolific writer of light verse, he was a member of the Algonquin Round Table of the 1920s and 1930s. more…

All Franklin P. Adams poems | Franklin P. Adams Books

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