Bedouin

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



O love is like an untamed steed!--
So hot of heart and wild of speed,
And with fierce freedom so in love,
The desert is not vast enough,
With all its leagues of glimmering sands,
To pasture it! Ah, that my hands
Were more than human in their strength,
That my deft lariat at length
Might safely noose this splendid thing
That so defies all conquering!
Ho! but to see it whirl and reel--
The sands spurt forward--and to feel
The quivering tension of the thong
That throned me high, with shriek and song!
To grapple tufts of tossing mane--
To spurn it to its feet again,
And then, sans saddle, rein or bit,
To lash the mad life out of it!

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

37 sec read
93

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABCDDEEFFGGHHIJKK
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 627
Words 125
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 18

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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