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 Views
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