Analysis of A Child-World

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



_The Child-World--long and long since lost to view--
A Fairy Paradise!--
How always fair it was and fresh and new--
How every affluent hour heaped heart and eyes
With treasures of surprise!

Enchantments tangible: The under-brink
Of dawns that launched the sight
Up seas of gold: The dewdrop on the pink,
With all the green earth in it and blue height
Of heavens infinite:

The liquid, dripping songs of orchard-birds--
The wee bass of the bees,--
With lucent deeps of silence afterwards;
The gay, clandestine whisperings of the breeze
And glad leaves of the trees.

* * * * *

O Child-World: After this world--just as when
I found you first sufficed
My soulmost need--if I found you again,
With all my childish dream so realised,
I should not be surprised._


Scheme AXABB CDCDX EFEFF GXGDD
Poetic Form
Metre 1111011111 01010 111110101 1100100101101 110101 11000101 111101 111101101 1101101011 110100 0101011101 011101 1101110100 010101101 011101 1 1111011111 111101 111111101 11110111 11111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 742
Words 136
Sentences 5
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 5, 5, 5, 1, 5
Lines Amount 21
Letters per line (avg) 28
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 117
Words per stanza (avg) 26
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 26, 2023

40 sec read
114

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…

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