Analysis of American Boys, Hello!

Ella Wheeler Wilcox 1855 (Janesville) – 1919



Oh! we love all the French, and we speak in French
As along through France we go.
But the moments to us that are keen and sweet
Are the ones when our khaki boys we meet,
Stalwart and handsome and trim and neat;
And we call to them-'Boys, hello!'
'Hello, American boys,
Luck to you, and life's best joys!
American boys, hello!'

We couldn't do that if we were at home-
It never would do you know!
For there you must wait till you're told who's who,
And to meet in the way that nice folks do.
Though you knew his name, and your name he knew-
You never would say 'Hello, hello, American boy!'
But here it's just a joy,
As we pass along in the stranger throng,
To call out, 'Boys, hello!'

For each is a brother away from home;
And this we are sure is so,
There's a lonesome spot in his heart somewhere,
And we want him to feel there are friends
right there

In this foreign land, and so we dare
To call out 'Boys, hello!'
'Hello, American boys,
Luck to you, and life's best joys!
American boys, hello!'


Scheme xabbbaCCA daeeeffxA dagxg gACCA
Poetic Form
Metre 11110101101 1011111 10101111101 10111010111 100100101 01111101 0101001 1110111 0100101 1101111011 1101111 1111111111 0110011111 1111101111 11011010101001 111101 1110100101 111101 1110100111 0111111 101010111 011111111 11 011010111 111101 0101001 1110111 0100101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 978
Words 202
Sentences 13
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 9, 9, 5, 5
Lines Amount 28
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 186
Words per stanza (avg) 49
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:01 min read
123

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Ella Wheeler Wilcox was an American author and poet. more…

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