Analysis of Honey Dripping From The Comb

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



How slight a thing may set one's fancy drifting
Upon the dead sea of the Past!--A view--
Sometimes an odor--or a rooster lifting
A far-off 'OOH! OOH-OOH!'

And suddenly we find ourselves astray
In some wood's-pasture of the Long Ago--
Or idly dream again upon a day
Of rest we used to know.

I bit an apple but a moment since--
A wilted apple that the worm had spurned,--
Yet hidden in the taste were happy hints
Of good old days returned.--

And so my heart, like some enraptured lute,
Tinkles a tune so tender and complete,
God's blessing must be resting on the fruit--
So bitter, yet so sweet!


Scheme ABAB CDCD XEXE FGFG
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 11011111010 0101110101 01110101010 011111 01001100101 0111010101 1101010101 111111 1111010101 0101010111 1100010101 111101 0111110101 101110001 1101110101 110111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 586
Words 116
Sentences 7
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 28
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 112
Words per stanza (avg) 28
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

35 sec read
43

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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