Analysis of Kneeling With Herrick

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



Dear Lord, to Thee my knee is bent.--
Give me content--
Full-pleasured with what comes to me,
What e'er it be:
An humble roof--a frugal board,
And simple hoard;
The wintry fagot piled beside
The chimney wide,
While the enwreathing flames up-sprout
And twine about
The brazen dogs that guard my hearth
And household worth:
Tinge with the ember's ruddy glow
The rafters low;
And let the sparks snap with delight,
As ringers might
That mark deft measures of some tune
The children croon:
Then, with good friends, the rarest few
Thou holdest true,
Ranged round about the blaze, to share
My comfort there,--
Give me to claim the service meet
That makes each seat
A place of honor, and each guest
Loved as the rest.


Scheme AABBCCDDEEFGHHIIJJKKLLMMNN
Poetic Form
Metre 11111111 1110 1111111 11011 11010101 0101 0101101 0101 101111 0101 01011111 011 1101101 0101 01011101 1101 11110111 0101 11110101 111 11010111 1101 11110101 1111 01110011 1101
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 692
Words 130
Sentences 3
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 26
Lines Amount 26
Letters per line (avg) 21
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 554
Words per stanza (avg) 126
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

39 sec read
93

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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