Analysis of If They Meant All They Said



Charm is a woman's strongest arm;
My charwoman is full of charm;
I chose her, not for strength of arm
But for her strange, elusive charm.

And how tears heighten woman's powers!
My typist weeps for hours and hours:
I took her for her weeping powers,
They so delight my business hours.

A woman lives by intuition.
Though my accountant shuns addition
She has the rarest intuition.
(And I myself can do addition.)

Timidity in girls is nice.
My cook is so afraid of mice.
Now you'll admit it's very nice
To feel your cook's afraid of mice.


Scheme AAAA BBBB CCCC DDDD
Poetic Form
Metre 11010101 11001111 11011111 11010101 011101010 1101110010 110101010 110111010 01011010 110101010 11010010 01111010 01000111 11110111 11011101 11110111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 528
Words 102
Sentences 9
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 26
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 104
Words per stanza (avg) 25
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Submitted on August 03, 2020

Modified on March 05, 2023

32 sec read
3

Alice Duer Miller

 · 1874 · New York
 · 1942 · New York

Alice Duer Miller was a writer from the U.S. whose poetry actively influenced political opinion. Her feminist verses made an impact on the suffrage issue, and her verse novel The White Cliffs encouraged U.S. entry into World War II. She also wrote novels and screenplays. more…

All Alice Duer Miller poems | Alice Duer Miller Books

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