Analysis of The Little Lady
James Whitcomb Riley 1849 (Greenfield) – 1916 (Indianapolis)
O The Little Lady's dainty
As the picture in a book,
And her hands are creamy-whiter
Than the water-lilies look;
Her laugh's the undrown'd music
Of the maddest meadow-brook.--
Yet all in vain I praise The Little Lady!
Her eyes are blue and dewy
As the glimmering Summer-dawn,--
Her face is like the eglantine
Before the dew is gone;
And were that honied mouth of hers
A bee's to feast upon,
He'd be a bee bewildered, Little Lady!
Her brow makes light look sallow;
And the sunshine, I declare,
Is but a yellow jealousy
Awakened by her hair--
For O the dazzling glint of it
Nor sight nor soul can bear,--
So Love goes groping for The Little Lady.
And yet she's neither Nymph nor Fay,
Nor yet of Angelkind:--
She's but a racing school-girl, with
Her hair blown out behind
And tremblingly unbraided by
The fingers of the Wind,
As it wildly swoops upon The Little Lady.
Scheme | ABXBXBA ACXCXXA XDADXDA XAXEXEA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 10101010 1010001 00111010 1010101 010110 10111 11011101010 0111010 10100101 0111010 010111 0011110 011101 11010101010 011111 001101 11010100 010101 110100111 111111 11110101010 01110111 1111 11010111 011101 0111 010101 111010101010 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 845 |
Words | 164 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 7, 7, 7, 7 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 167 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 40 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 51 sec read
- 42 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"The Little Lady" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/21074/the-little-lady>.
Discuss this James Whitcomb Riley poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In