Analysis of June At Woodruff
James Whitcomb Riley 1849 (Greenfield) – 1916 (Indianapolis)
Out at Woodruff Place--afar
From the city's glare and jar,
With the leafy trees, instead
Of the awnings, overhead;
With the shadows cool and sweet,
For the fever of the street;
With the silence, like a prayer,
Breathing round us everywhere.
Gracious anchorage, at last,
From the billows of the vast
Tide of life that comes and goes,
Whence and where nobody knows--
Moving, like a skeptic's thought,
Out of nowhere into naught.
Touch and tame us with thy grace,
Placid calm of Woodruff Place!
Weave a wreath of beechen leaves
For the brow that throbs and grieves
O'er the ledger, bloody-lined,
'Neath the sun-struck window-blind!
Send the breath of woodland bloom
Through the sick man's prison room,
Till his old farm-home shall swim
Sweet in mind to hearten him!
Out at Woodruff Place the Muse
Dips her sandal in the dews,
Sacredly as night and dawn
Baptize lilied grove and lawn:
Woody path, or paven way--
She doth haunt them night and day,--
Sun or moonlight through the trees,
To her eyes, are melodies.
Swinging lanterns, twinkling clear
Through night-scenes, are songs to her--
Tinted lilts and choiring hues,
Blent with children's glad halloos;
Then belated lays that fade
Into midnight's serenade--
Vine-like words and zithern-strings
Twined through ali her slumberings.
Blessed be each hearthstone set
Neighboring the violet!
Blessed every rooftree prayed
Over by the beech's shadel
Blessed doorway, opening where
We may look on Nature--there
Hand to hand and face to face--
Storied realm, or Woodruff Place.
Scheme | AABBCCDD EEFFGGHH IIJJKKLL MMNNOOPP XXMFQQXF XXQXDDHH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1110101 1010101 1010101 101101 101101 1010101 1010101 101110 1010011 1010101 1111101 10111 101011 111011 1011111 1011101 101111 1011101 10010101 1011101 101111 1011101 1111111 1011101 1110101 1010001 11101 011101 101111 1111101 111101 1011100 10101001 1111110 101011 111011 1010111 01101 111011 111001 11111 1000100 110011 1010110 111001 1111101 1110111 1011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,478 |
Words | 253 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 200 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 42 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 17, 2023
- 1:18 min read
- 53 Views
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"June At Woodruff" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 8 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/20941/june-at-woodruff>.
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