Analysis of My Mary
James Whitcomb Riley 1849 (Greenfield) – 1916 (Indianapolis)
My Mary, O my Mary!
The simmer-skies are blue;
The dawnin' brings the dazzle,
An' the gloamin' brings the dew,--
The mirk o' nicht the glory
O' the moon, an' kindles, too,
The stars that shift aboon the lift.--
But nae thing brings me you!
Where is it, O my Mary,
Ye are biding a' the while?
I ha' wended by your window--
I ha' waited by the stile,
An' up an' down the river
I ha' won for mony a mile,
Yet never found, adrift or drown'd,
Your lang-belated smile.
Is it forgot, my Mary,
How glad we used to be?--
The simmer-time when bonny bloomed
The auld trysting-tree,--
How there I carved the name for you,
An' you the name for me;
An' the gloamin' kenned it only
When we kissed sae tenderly.
Speek ance to me, my Mary!--
But whisper in my ear
As light as ony sleeper's breath,
An' a' my soul will hear;
My heart shall stap its beating
An' the soughing atmosphere
Be hushed the while I leaning smile
An' listen to you, dear!
My Mary, O my Mary!
The blossoms bring the bees;
The sunshine brings the blossoms,
An' the leaves on a' the trees;
The simmer brings the sunshine
An' the fragrance o' the breeze,--
But O wi'out you, Mary,
I care nae thing for these!
We were sae happy, Mary!
O think how ance we said--
Wad ane o' us gae fickle,
Or ane o' us lie dead,--
To feel anither's kisses
We wad feign the auld instead,
An' ken the ither's footsteps
In the green grass owerhead.
My Mary, O my Mary!
Are ye daughter o' the air,
That ye vanish aye before me
As I follow everywhere?--
Or is it ye are only
But a mortal, wan wi' care?--
Syne I search through a' the kirkyird
An' I dinna find ye there!
Scheme | Abcbabdb aexexexe aaxabaaa afxfxgeg Ahxhxhah aicixixd Ajajajdj |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101110 010111 011010 101101 0111010 101111 0111101 111111 1111110 1110001 1111110 1110101 1111010 11111001 11010111 110101 1101110 111111 01011101 0111 11110111 110111 1011110 1111100 1111110 110011 111111 101111 1111110 10110 11011101 110111 1101110 010101 011010 1011001 010101 1010101 111110 111111 1011010 111111 1111110 111111 11110 1110101 11011 00111 1101110 1110101 11101011 111010 1111110 1010111 1111001 111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,550 |
Words | 324 |
Sentences | 18 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 56 |
Letters per line (avg) | 21 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 167 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 45 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:38 min read
- 58 Views
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"My Mary" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 8 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/20976/my-mary>.
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