Analysis of The Train Misser

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



At Union Station

'Ll where in the world my eyes has bin--
Ef I hain't missed that train ag'in!
Chuff! And whistle! And toot! And ring!
But blast and blister the dasted train--!
How it does it I can't explain!
Git here thirty-five minutes before
The durn things due--! And, drat the thing
It'll manage to git past-shore!

The more I travel around, the more
I got no sense--! To stand right here
And let it beat me! 'Ll ding my melts!
I got no gumption, ner nothin' else!
Ticket Agent's a dad-burned bore--!
Sell you a tickets all they keer--!
Ticket Agents ort to all be

Prosecuted-- and that's jes what--!
How'd I know which train's fer me?
And how'd I know which train was not--?
Goern and comin' and gone astray,
And backin' and switchin' ever'-which-way!

Ef I could jes sneak round behind
Myse'f, where I could git full swing,
I'd lift my coat, and kick, by jing!
Till I jes got jerked up and fined--!
Fer here I stood, as a durn fool's apt
To, and let that train jes chuff and choo
Right apast me-- and mouth jes gapped
Like a blamed old sandwitch warped in two!


Scheme X AABCCDBD DXXXDDE FEXGG HBBHXIFI
Poetic Form
Metre 11010 110011111 111111110 10100101 11010011 11111101 111011001 01110101 10101111 011100101 11111111 011111111 111101101 10100111 11010111 10101111 1000111 1111111 01111111 1010101 0101111 11111101 1111111 11110111 11111101 111110111 101111101 1110111 10111101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,045
Words 203
Sentences 23
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 1, 8, 7, 5, 8
Lines Amount 29
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 157
Words per stanza (avg) 40
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:04 min read
40

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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