Analysis of Thinkin' Back
James Whitcomb Riley 1849 (Greenfield) – 1916 (Indianapolis)
I've ben thinkin' back, of late,
S'prisin'!--And I'm here to state
I'm suspicious it's a sign
Of _age_, maybe, or decline
Of my faculties,--and yit
I'm not _feelin'_ old a bit--
Any more than sixty-four
Ain't no _young_ man any more!
Thinkin' back's a thing 'at grows
On a feller, I suppose--
Older 'at he gits, i jack,
More he keeps a-thinkin' back!
Old as old men git to be,
Er as middle-aged as me,
Folks'll find us, eye and mind
Fixed on what we've left behind--
Rehabilitatin'-like
Them old times we used to hike
Out barefooted fer the crick,
'Long 'bout _Aprile first_--to pick
Out some 'warmest' place to go
In a-swimmin'--_Ooh! my-oh!_
Wonder now we hadn't died!
Grate horseradish on my hide
Jes' _a-thinkin'_ how cold then
That-'ere worter must 'a' ben!
Thinkin' back--W'y, goodness me!
I kin call their names and see
Every little tad I played
With, er fought, er was afraid
Of, and so made _him_ the best
Friend I had of all the rest!
Thinkin' back, I even hear
Them a-callin', high and clear,
Up the crick-banks, where they seem
Still hid in there--like a dream--
And me still a-pantin' on
The green pathway they have gone!
Still they hide, by bend er ford--
Still they hide--but, thank the Lord,
(Thinkin' back, as I have said),
I hear laughin' on ahead!
Scheme | AABBAXCC DDEEFFGGHHIIXXJJKK FFLLMM XXNNXXOOPP |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1110111 101111 1010101 1110101 1110001 111101 1011101 1111101 1010111 1010101 1011111 1110101 1111111 0110111 111101 1111101 11 1111111 11101 111111 1110111 001111 1011101 110111 111111 111101 1011001101 1111101 10010111 1010101 1011101 1111101 1011101 101101 1011111 1101101 011011 011111 1111101 1111101 1011111 111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,233 |
Words | 232 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 18, 6, 10 |
Lines Amount | 42 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 233 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 57 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:14 min read
- 77 Views
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"Thinkin' Back" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/21140/thinkin%27-back>.
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