Analysis of Job Work

James Whitcomb Riley 1849 (Greenfield) – 1916 (Indianapolis)



'Write me a rhyme of the present time'.
And the poet took his pen
And wrote such lines as the miser minds
Hide in the hearts of men.

He grew enthused, as the poets used
When their fingers kissed the strings
Of some sweet lyre, and caught the fire
True inspiration brings,

And sang the song of a nation's wrong--
Of the patriot's galling chain,
And the glad release that the angel, Peace,
Has given him again.

He sang the lay of religion's sway,
Where a hundred creeds clasp hands
And shout in glee such a symphony
That the whole world understands.

He struck the key of monopoly,
And sang of her swift decay,
And traveled the track of the railway back
With a blithesome roundelay--

Of the tranquil bliss of a true love kiss;
And painted the picture, too,
Of the wedded life, and the patient wife,
And the husband fond and true;

And sang the joy that a noble boy
Brings to a father's soul,
Who lets the wine as a mocker shine
Stagnated in the bowl.

And he stabbed his pen in the ink again,
And wrote with a writhing frown,
'This is the end.' 'And now, my friend,
You may print it--upside down!'


Scheme XAXA XBXB XXXA CDED ECXF XGXG XFXF AHXH
Poetic Form Quatrain  (75%)
Metre 110110101 0010111 011110101 100111 110110101 1110101 111101010 10101 010110101 10100101 0010110101 110101 110110101 1010111 010110100 101101 110110100 0110101 010011011 1011 1010110111 0100101 1010100101 0010101 010110101 110101 11011011 10001 0111100101 0110101 11011111 1111111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,069
Words 211
Sentences 8
Stanzas 8
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 32
Letters per line (avg) 26
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 105
Words per stanza (avg) 26
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:03 min read
51

James Whitcomb Riley

James Whitcomb Riley was an American writer, poet, and best-selling author. During his lifetime he was known as the "Hoosier Poet" and "Children's Poet" for his dialect works and his children's poetry respectively. more…

All James Whitcomb Riley poems | James Whitcomb Riley Books

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