Analysis of Old Man's Nursery Rhyme
James Whitcomb Riley 1849 (Greenfield) – 1916 (Indianapolis)
In the jolly winters
Of the long-ago,
It was not so cold as now--
O! No! No!
Then, as I remember,
Snowballs, to eat,
Were as good as apples now,
And every bit as sweet!
In the jolly winters
Of the dead-and-gone,
Bub was warm as summer,
With his red mitts on,--
Just in his little waist-
And-pants all together,
Who ever heard him growl
About cold weather?
In the jolly winters of the long-ago--
Was it _half_ so cold as now?
O! No! No!
Who caught his death o' cold,
Making prints of men
Flat-backed in snow that now's
Twice as cold again?
In the jolly winters
Of the dead-and-gone,
Startin' out rabbit-hunting
Early as the dawn,--
Who ever froze his fingers,
Ears, heels, or toes,--
Or'd a cared if he had?
Nobody knows!
Nights by the kitchen-stove,
Shelling white and red
Corn in the skillet, and
Sleepin' four abed!
Ah! the jolly winters
Of the long-ago!
We were not so old as now--
O! No! No!
Scheme | ABcBdece AFdxxdxd bcBxgxg AFxfahxh xixiaBcB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 001010 10101 1111111 111 111010 111 0111101 0100111 001010 10101 111110 11111 101101 011010 110111 01110 00101010101 1111111 111 111111 10111 110111 11101 001010 10101 111010 10101 1101110 1111 101111 11 110101 10101 100100 1101 101010 10101 1011111 111 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 879 |
Words | 178 |
Sentences | 24 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 7, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 39 |
Letters per line (avg) | 17 |
Words per line (avg) | 4 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 132 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 34 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 54 sec read
- 115 Views
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"Old Man's Nursery Rhyme" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/20989/old-man%27s-nursery-rhyme>.
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