Analysis of A Summer Afternoon
James Whitcomb Riley 1849 (Greenfield) – 1916 (Indianapolis)
A languid atmosphere, a lazy breeze,
With labored respiration, moves the wheat
From distant reaches, till the golden seas
Break in crisp whispers at my feet.
My book, neglected of an idle mind,
Hides for a moment from the eyes of men;
Or lightly opened by a critic wind,
Affrightedly reviews itself again.
Off through the haze that dances in the shine
The warm sun showers in the open glade,
The forest lies, a silhouette design
Dimmed through and through with shade.
A dreamy day; and tranquilly I lie
At anchor from all storms of mental strain;
With absent vision, gazing at the sky,
"Like one that hears it rain."
The Katydid, so boisterous last night,
Clinging, inverted, in uneasy poise,
Beneath a wheat-blade, has forgotten quite
If "Katy DID or DIDN'T" make a noise.
The twitter, sometimes, of a wayward bird
That checks the song abruptly at the sound,
And mildly, chiding echoes that have stirred,
Sink into silence, all the more profound.
And drowsily I hear the plaintive strain
Of some poor dove . . . Why, I can scarcely keep
My heavy eyelids--there it is again--
"Coo-coo!"--I mustn't--"Coo-coo!"--fall asleep!
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH IJIJ KLKL HMDM |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 010100101 110010101 1101010101 10110111 1101011101 1101010111 1101010101 1010101 1101110001 0111000101 010100101 110111 01010111 1101111101 1101010101 111111 010110011 1001000101 0101110101 1101110101 0100110101 1101010101 0101010111 1011010101 01110101 1111111101 110111101 1111011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,104 |
Words | 194 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 124 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 27 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 58 sec read
- 95 Views
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