Analysis of The Little Fat Doctor
James Whitcomb Riley 1849 (Greenfield) – 1916 (Indianapolis)
He seemed so strange to me, every way--
In manner, and form, and size,
From the boy I knew but yesterday,--
I could hardly believe my eyes!
To hear his name called over there,
My memory thrilled with glee
And leaped to picture him young and fair
In youth, as he used to be.
But looking, only as glad eyes can,
For the boy I knew of yore,
I smiled on a portly little man
I had never seen before!--
Grave as a judge in courtliness--
Professor-like and bland--
A little fat doctor and nothing less,
With his hat in his kimboed hand.
But how we talked old times, and 'chaffed'
Each other with 'Minnie' and 'Jim'---
And how the little fat doctor laughed,
And how I laughed with him!
'And it's pleasant,' I thought, 'though I yearn to see
The face of the youth that was,
To know no boy could smile on me
As the little fat doctor does!'
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF BGXG GHXH DXDX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (83%) |
Metre | 1111111001 0100101 10111110 11100111 11111101 1100111 011101101 0111111 110101111 1011111 111010101 1110101 110101 010101 0101100101 1110111 11111101 11011001 010101101 011111 01101111111 0110111 11111111 10101101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 814 |
Words | 167 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 104 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 27 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 50 sec read
- 86 Views
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