Analysis of He And I

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



Just drifting on together--
He and I--
As through the balmy weather
Of July
Drift two thistle-tufts imbedded
Each in each--by zephyrs wedded--
Touring upward, giddy-headed,
For the sky.

And, veering up and onward,
Do we seem
Forever drifting dawnward
In a dream,
Where we meet song-birds that know us,
And the winds their kisses blow us,
While the years flow far below us
Like a stream.

And we are happy--very--
He and I--
Aye, even glad and merry
Though on high
The heavens are sometimes shrouded
By the midnight storm, and clouded
Till the pallid moon is crowded
From the sky.

My spirit ne'er expresses
Any choice
But to clothe him with caresses
And rejoice;
And as he laughs, it is in
Such a tone the moonbeams glisten
And the stars come out to listen
To his voice.

And so, whate'er the weather,
He and I,--
With our lives linked thus together,
Float and fly
As two thistle-tufts imbedded
Each in each--by zephyrs wedded--
Touring upward, giddy-headed,
For the sky.


Scheme aBabcDDB xecefffe gBgbccdb xhxhxiih aBabcDDB
Poetic Form Tetractys  (40%)
Etheree  (33%)
Metre 1101010 101 1101010 11 11101010 10111010 10101010 101 0101010 111 010101 001 11111111 00111011 10111011 101 0111010 101 1101010 111 01010110 1011010 10101110 101 1101010 101 11111010 001 0111110 1010110 00111110 111 0110010 101 110111010 101 11101010 10111010 10101010 101
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 937
Words 174
Sentences 6
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8, 8, 8
Lines Amount 40
Letters per line (avg) 19
Words per line (avg) 4
Letters per stanza (avg) 150
Words per stanza (avg) 34
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

52 sec read
52

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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