Analysis of A Glimpse Of Pan

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



I caught but a glimpse of him. Summer was here.
And I strayed from the town and its dust and heat.
And walked in a wood, while the noon was near,
Where the shadows were cool, and the atmosphere
Was misty with fragrances stirred by my feet
From surges of blossoms that billowed sheer
Of the grasses, green and sweet.

And I peered through a vista of leaning tree,
Tressed with long tangles of vines that swept
To the face of a river, that answered these
With vines in the wave like the vines in the breeze,
Till the yearning lips of the ripples crept
And kissed them, with quavering ecstasies,
And wistfully laughed and wept

And there, like a dream in swoon, I swear
I saw Pan lying--, his limbs in the dew
And the shade, and his face in the dazzle and glare
Of the glad sunshine; while everywhere,
Over across, and around him blew
Filmy dragon-flies hither and there,
And little white butterflies, two and two,
In eddies of odorous air.


Scheme XABBABA XCDDCDC EFEEFEFE
Poetic Form
Metre 11101111011 01110101101 0100110111 101010010 11011001111 1101101101 1010101 01110101101 111101111 10110101101 11001101001 1010110101 01111001 0100101 011010111 1111011001 001011001001 1011110 100100111 11011001 010110101 01011001
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 922
Words 176
Sentences 6
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 7, 7, 8
Lines Amount 22
Letters per line (avg) 33
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 245
Words per stanza (avg) 58
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

52 sec read
37

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…

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