Analysis of His Mother
James Whitcomb Riley 1849 (Greenfield) – 1916 (Indianapolis)
DEAD! my wayward boy--_my own_--
Not _the Law's!_ but _mine_--the good
God's free gift to me alone,
Sanctified by motherhood.
'Bad,' you say: Well, who is not?
'Brutal'--'with a heart of stone'--
And 'red-handed.'--Ah! the hot
Blood upon your own!
I come not, with downward eyes,
To plead for him shamedly,--
God did not apologize
When He gave the boy to me.
Simply, I make ready now
For _His_ verdict.--_You_ prepare--
You have killed us both--and how
Will you face us There!
Scheme | ABAB CACA DXDX AEXE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (75%) |
Metre | 1110111 1111101 1111101 1110 1111111 110111 011101 10111 1111101 11111 111010 1110111 1011101 1110101 1111101 11111 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 469 |
Words | 89 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 16 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 87 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 21 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 18, 2023
- 27 sec read
- 288 Views
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"His Mother" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 23 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/20905/his-mother>.
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