Analysis of Illileo
James Whitcomb Riley 1849 (Greenfield) – 1916 (Indianapolis)
Illileo, the moonlight seemed lost across the vales--
The stars but strewed the azure as an armor's scattered scales;
The airs of night were quiet as the breath of silken sails,
And all your words were sweeter than the notes of nightingales.
Illileo Legardi, in the garden there alone,
With your figure carved of fervor, as the Psyche carved of stone,
There came to me no murmur of the fountain's undertone
So mystically, musically mellow as your own.
You whispered low, Illileo-- so low the leaves were mute,
And the echoes faltered breathless in your voice's vain pursuit;
And there died the distant dalliance of the serenader's lute:
And I held you in my bosom as the husk may hold the fruit.
Illileo, I listened. I believed you. In my bliss,
What were all the worlds above me since I found you thus in this--?
Let them reeling reach to win me-- even Heaven I would miss,
Grasping earthward--! I would cling here, though I clung by just a kiss.
And blossoms should grow odorless-- and lilies all aghast--
And I said the stars should slacken in their paces through the vast,
Ere yet my loyalty should fail enduring to the last--.
So vowed I. It is written. It is changeless as the past.
IIlileo Legardi, in the shade your palace throws
Like a cowl about the singer at your gilded porticos,
A moan goes with the music that may vex the high repose
Of a heart that fades and crumbles as the crimson of a rose.
Scheme | AAAA BBBB CCCC DDDD EEEE FAFF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 101110101 0111010111101 01110101011101 011101010111 110010101 111011101010111 111111010110 1110010111 11011110101 001010100110101 0110101001011 011101101011101 11101011011 101010111111101 111011111010111 10111111111101 01011100010101 011011100110101 11110011010101 1111110111101 110011101 1010101011101 01110101110101 101110101010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic heptameter |
Characters | 1,393 |
Words | 259 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 46 |
Words per line (avg) | 11 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 183 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 43 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 14, 2023
- 1:18 min read
- 44 Views
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"Illileo" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/20918/illileo>.
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