Analysis of The King
James Whitcomb Riley 1849 (Greenfield) – 1916 (Indianapolis)
They rode right out of the morning sun--
A glimmering, glittering cavalcade
Of knights and ladies and every one
In princely sheen arrayed;
And the king of them all, O he rode ahead,
With a helmet of gold, and a plume of red
That spurted about in the breeze and bled
In the bloom of the everglade.
And they rode high over the dewy lawn,
With brave, glad banners of every hue
That rolled in ripples, as they rode on
In splendor, two and two;
And the tinkling links of the golden reins
Of the steeds they rode rang such refrains
As the castanets in a dream of Spain's
Intensest gold and blue.
And they rode and rode; and the steeds they neighed
And pranced, and the sun on their glossy hides
Flickered and lightened and glanced and played
Like the moon on rippling tides;
And their manes were silken, and thick and strong,
And their tails were flossy, and fetlock-long,
And jostled in time to the teeming throng,
And their knightly song besides.
Clank of scabbard and jingle of spur,
And the fluttering sash of the queen went wild
In the wind, and the proud king glanced at her
As one at a wilful child--,
And as knight and lady away they flew,
And the banners flapped, and the falcon too,
And the lances flashed and the bugle blew,
He kissed his hand and smiled.
And then, like a slanting sunlit shower,
The pageant glittered across the plain,
And the turf spun back, and the wildweed flower
Was only a crimson stain.
And a dreamer's eyes they are downward cast,
As he blends these words with the wailing blast:
'It is the King of the Year rides past!'
And Autumn is here again.
Scheme | ABABCCCB XDXDEEED BFBF GGGF HIHIDDDI HJHJKKKX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (25%) |
Metre | 111110101 010010010 1101001001 010101 00111111101 10101100111 1100100101 001101 0111100101 1111011001 110101111 010101 00100110101 101111101 10100111 1101 0110100111 0100111101 100100101 10111001 0110100101 01101011 0100110101 0110101 111001011 00100110111 0010011110 111011 0110100111 0010100101 001100101 111101 011010110 010100101 0011100110 1100101 001111101 1111110101 110110111 0101101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,545 |
Words | 297 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 4, 4, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 206 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 49 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 26, 2023
- 1:29 min read
- 69 Views
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"The King" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/21070/the-king>.
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