Analysis of In School-Days
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)
Still sits the school-house by the road,
A ragged beggar sleeping;
Around it still the sumachs grow,
And blackberry-vines are creeping.
Within, the master's desk is seen,
Deep-scarred by raps official;
The warping floor, the battered seats,
The jack-knife's carved initial;
The charcoal frescoes on its wall;
Its door's worn sill, betraying
The feet that, creeping slow to school,
Went storming out to playing!
Long years ago a winter sun
Shone over it at setting;
Lit up its western window-panes,
And low eaves' icy fretting.
It touched the tangled golden curls,
And brown eyes full of grieving,
Of one who still her steps delayed
When all the school were leaving.
For near it stood the little boy
Her childish favor singled;
His cap pulled low upon a face
Where pride and shame were mingled.
Pushing with restless feet the snow
To right and left, he lingered;---
As restlessly her tiny hands
The blue-checked apron fingered.
He saw her lift her eyes; he felt
The soft hand's light caressing,
And heard the tremble of her voice,
As if a fault confessing.
"I'm sorry that I spelt the word:
I hate to go above you,
Because,"---the brown eyes lower fell,---
"Because, you see, I love you!"
Still memory to a gray-haired man
That sweet child-face is showing.
Dear girl! the grasses on her grave
Have forty years been growing!
He lives to learn, in life's hard school,
How few who pass above him
Lament their triumph and his loss,
Like her, because they love him.
Scheme | XABA XCXC XADA XAXA XAXA XEXE BFXF XAXA FGXG XAXA DHXH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 11011101 0101010 0111011 0101110 01010111 1111010 01010101 0111010 0110111 1111010 01110111 1101110 11010101 1101110 11110101 0111010 11010101 0111110 11110101 1101010 11110101 0101010 11110101 1101010 10110101 1101110 11000101 0111010 11010111 0111010 01010101 1101010 11011101 1111011 01011101 0111111 110010111 1111110 11010101 1101110 11110111 1111011 01110011 1001111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,467 |
Words | 259 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 11 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 44 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 103 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 23 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 20, 2023
- 1:19 min read
- 279 Views
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"In School-Days" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/22937/in-school-days>.
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