Analysis of Judith

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



O her eyes are amber-fine--
Dark and deep as wells of wine,
While her smile is like the noon
Splendor of a day of June.
If she sorrow--lo! her face
It is like a flowery space
In bright meadows, overlaid
With light clouds and lulled with shade
If she laugh--it is the trill
Of the wayward whippoorwill
Over upland pastures, heard
Echoed by the mocking-bird
In dim thickets dense with bloom
And blurred cloyings of perfume.
If she sigh--a zephyr swells
Over odorous asphodels
And wan lilies in lush plots
Of moon-drown'd forget-me-nots.
Then, the soft touch of her hand--
Takes all breath to understand
What to liken it thereto!--
Never roseleaf rinsed with dew
Might slip soother-suave than slips
Her slow palm, the while her lips
Swoon through mine, with kiss on kiss
Sweet as heated honey is.


Scheme AABBCCDDEEFFGGHCIIJJDKLLMN
Poetic Form
Metre 1011101 1011111 1011101 1010111 1110101 11101001 01110 1110111 1111101 10101 1010101 1010101 0110111 011101 1110101 101001 0110011 1110111 1011101 111101 111011 101111 111111 0110101 1111111 1110101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 776
Words 142
Sentences 7
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 26
Lines Amount 26
Letters per line (avg) 24
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 624
Words per stanza (avg) 139
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

42 sec read
120

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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