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 Views
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"The Train Misser" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/21128/the-train-misser>.
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