"There Was a Young Girl From St. Paul" by Anonymous
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There Was a Young Girl From St. Paul
There was a young girl from St. Paul,
Wore a newspaper-dress to a ball.
The dress caught on fire
And burned her entire
Front page, sporting section and all.
This poem is an example of anapestic meter. There are two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed one. In the second line the poem the stressed syllables are: news, dress, and ball. The first two lines are descriptions of the girl attending the ball… a young girl wearing a dress made of a newspaper. The next two lines in the stanza are full of action. They are also shorter than the previous two. Not only are they shorter but they are also indented. This intentional indentation is extremely important to signify a change in the poems tone. It quickly changes from a descriptive poem to an action-packed one. There isn't much description on the burning of the dress other than the fact that it burned completely. This is representative of how fast it happened. Finally, the last line goes back to being more descriptive than action.
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