This is an analysis of The Stethoscope Song. A Professional Ballad by Oliver Wendell Holmes.
THERE was a young man in Boston town,
He bought him a stethoscope nice and new,…
Structure
- Rhyme scheme: abab cdcd bebe Xcfc cdcd fdfd acac ghgh hihi jkjk dldl gbgb jbjb jdjd Xkfk kXkk cdcd dddd khkX dfdX kaka jaja hdhdXadad
- Stanza lengths: 4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,4,9,
- Metre: 110110101 1110101111 1101101101 01100110101 0100100101 111010101 011101101 0100100101 0110101111 0101101111 1110100101 1110110101 1100101100 01111101 111110101 0110100101 1110101101 111011101 111100101 11101001001 01111111 11010101 11011111 101010011 1101001001 001010101 1011110011 110110111 11010111 110101001 111100101 1100111101 010000101 100101101 11011101 100101101 101000101 11010001 01010111 11010111 11111101 01010101 111100111 1110101101 1111101101 111010101 011110111 00010111 11011101 011101001 1101101111 0101100101 11010111 01010111 110100111 110101100 010110101 101011101 1101010 01011011 110100101 01111010 110010101 01010111 11110111 01011101 11010111 11011101 11110111 111101101 110101101 1101101111 11110101 01011101 11011111 011010110 110110101 11011111 01110011 01011101 01110101 11011111 11010101 10111101 01111101 01010111 11110111 01000101 01010101 01011001 110100101 0011010101 11111111 11010111 1110101011 10100100101
- Closest metre: iambic tetrameter
- Guessed form: ballad stanza
- Stanzas: 24
- Lines: 96
Repeated words/phrases
and, some, his, her, de, bruit
Anaphora
the, and
