Analysis of A Noted Traveler
James Whitcomb Riley 1849 (Greenfield) – 1916 (Indianapolis)
Even in such a scene of senseless play
The children were surprised one summer-day
By a strange man who called across the fence,
Inquiring for their father's residence;
And, being answered that this was the place,
Opened the gate, and with a radiant face,
Came in and sat down with them in the shade
And waited--till the absent father made
His noon appearance, with a warmth and zest
That told he had no ordinary guest
In this man whose low-spoken name he knew
At once, demurring as the stranger drew
A stuffy notebook out and turned and set
A big fat finger on a page and let
The writing thereon testify instead
Of further speech. And as the father read
All silently, the curious children took
Exacting inventory both of book
And man:--He wore a long-napped white fur-hat
Pulled firmly on his head, and under that
Rather long silvery hair, or iron-gray--
For he was not an old man,--anyway,
Not beyond sixty. And he wore a pair
Of square-framed spectacles--or rather there
Were two more than a pair,--the extra two
Flared at the corners, at the eyes' side-view,
In as redundant vision as the eyes
Of grasshoppers or bees or dragonflies.
Later the children heard the father say
He was 'A Noted Traveler,' and would stay
Some days with them--In which time host and guest
Discussed, alone, in deepest interest,
Some vague, mysterious matter that defied
The wistful children, loitering outside
The spare-room door. There Bud acquired a quite
New list of big words--such as 'Disunite,'
And 'Shibboleth,' and 'Aristocracy,'
And 'Juggernaut,' and 'Squatter Sovereignty,'
And 'Anti-slavery,' 'Emancipate,'
'Irrepressible conflict,' and 'The Great
Battle of Armageddon'--obviously
A pamphlet brought from Washington, D. C.,
And spread among such friends as might occur
Of like views with 'The Noted Traveler.'
Scheme | AABCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJKKAALLGGMBAAFNOOPEQQRRQQSS |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1001011101 0100011101 1011110101 01001110100 0101011101 10010101001 1001111001 0101010101 1101010101 111111001 0111110111 1101010101 010110101 0111010101 010011001 1101010101 11000100101 010010111 0111011111 1101110101 10110011101 111111110 1011001101 1111001101 0111010101 1101010111 0101010101 1101111 1001010101 11010100011 1111011101 010101010 11010010101 0101010011 01111101001 11111111 01000100 010010100 0101001 0010010001 10111000 0101110011 0101111101 1111010100 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,765 |
Words | 313 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 44 |
Lines Amount | 44 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,412 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 298 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:31 min read
- 95 Views
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"A Noted Traveler" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/20789/a-noted-traveler>.
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