Analysis of The Same Old Story

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



The same old story told again--
The maiden droops her head,
The ripening glow of her crimson cheek
Is answering in her stead.
The pleading tone of a trembling voice
Is telling her the way
He loved her when his heart was young
In Youth's sunshiny day:
The trembling tongue, the longing tone,
Imploringly ask why
They can not be as happy now
As in the days gone by.
And two more hearts, tumultuous
With overflowing joy,
Are dancing to the music
Which that dear, provoking boy
Is twanging on his bowstring,
As, fluttering his wings,
He sends his love-charged arrows
While merrily be sings:
'Ho! ho! my dainty maiden,
It surely can not be
You are thinking you are master
Of your heart, when it is me.'
And another gleaming arrow
Does the little god's behest,
And the dainty little maiden
Falls upon her lover's breast.
'The same old story told again,'
And listened o'er and o'er,
Will still be new, and pleasing, too,
Till 'Time shall be no more.'


Scheme AbcbdefeghihjklkcmnmopqprsosAqtu
Poetic Form
Metre 01110101 010101 0100110101 1100001 0101101001 110001 11011111 01101 010010101 111 11111101 100111 0111100 11001 1101010 1110101 11111 110011 1111110 110011 1111010 110111 11101110 1111111 00101010 1010101 00101010 1010101 01110101 01010010 11110101 111111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 920
Words 176
Sentences 8
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 32
Lines Amount 32
Letters per line (avg) 23
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 733
Words per stanza (avg) 171
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

53 sec read
124

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…

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