Analysis of In The Dark

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



O in the depths of midnight
What fancies haunt the brain!
When even the sigh of the sleeper
Sounds like a sob of pain.

A sense of awe and of wonder
I may never well define,--
For the thoughts that come in the shadows
Never come in the shine.

The old clock down in the parlor
Like a sleepless mourner grieves,
And the seconds drip in the silence
As the rain drips from the eaves.

And I think of the hands that signal
The hours there in the gloom,
And wonder what angel watchers
Wait in the darkened room.

And I think of the smiling faces
That used to watch and wait,
Till the click of the clock was answered
By the click of the opening gate.--

They are not there now in the evening--
Morning or noon--not there;
Yet I know that they keep their vigil,
And wait for me Somewhere.


Scheme XABA BCXC BDXD EFXF XGXG XHEH
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 100111 110101 110011010 110111 01110110 1110101 10111001 101001 01110010 1010101 001010010 1011101 011101110 0101001 01011010 100101 011101010 111101 101101110 101101001 111110010 101111 111111110 01111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 761
Words 156
Sentences 8
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 25
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 101
Words per stanza (avg) 25
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 21, 2023

46 sec read
139

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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