Analysis of While The Musician Played
James Whitcomb Riley 1849 (Greenfield) – 1916 (Indianapolis)
O it was but a dream I had
While the musician played!--
And here the sky, and here the glad
Old ocean kissed the glade--
And here the laughing ripples ran,
And here the roses grew
That threw a kiss to every man
That voyaged with the crew.
Our silken sails in lazy folds
Drooped in the breathless breeze:
As o'er a field of marigolds
Our eyes swam o'er the seas;
While here the eddies lisped and purled
Around the island's rim,
And up from out the underworld
We saw the mermen swim.
And it was dawn and middle-day
And midnight--for the moon
On silver rounds across the bay
Had climbed the skies of June--
And there the glowing, glorious king
Of day ruled o'er his realm,
With stars of midnight glittering
About his diadem.
The seagull reeled on languid wing
In circles round the mast,
We heard the songs the sirens sing
As we went sailing past;
And up and down the golden sands
A thousand fairy throngs
Flung at us from their flashing hands
The echoes of their songs.
O it was but a dream I had
While the musician played--
For here the sky, and here the glad
Old ocean kissed the glade;
And here the laughing ripples ran,
And here the roses grew
That threw a kiss to every man
That voyaged with the crew.
Scheme | ABaBCDCD efefagxg hihijxjx jkjklmlm ABaBCDCD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (33%) Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 11110111 100101 01010101 110101 01010101 010101 110111001 110101 101010101 100101 11001110 10111001 11010101 010101 0111010 11011 01110101 01101 11010101 110111 010101001 1111011 1111100 01110 0111101 010101 11010101 111101 01010101 010101 11111101 010111 11110111 100101 11010101 110101 01010101 010101 110111001 110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,172 |
Words | 232 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 188 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 46 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 08, 2023
- 1:10 min read
- 33 Views
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"While The Musician Played" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/21193/while-the-musician-played>.
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