Analysis of Our Boyhood Haunts
James Whitcomb Riley 1849 (Greenfield) – 1916 (Indianapolis)
Ho! I'm going back to where
We were youngsters.--Meet me there,
Dear old barefoot chum, and we
Will be as we used to be,--
Lawless rangers up and down
The old creek beyond the town--
Little sunburnt gods at play,
Just as in that far-away:--
Water nymphs, all unafraid,
Shall smile at us from the brink
Of the old millrace and wade
Tow'rd us as we kneeling drink
At the spring our boyhood knew,
Pure and clear as morning-dew:
And, as we are rising there,
Doubly dow'rd to hear and see,
We shall thus be made aware
Of an eerie piping, heard
High above the happy bird
In the hazel: And then we,
Just across the creek, shall see
(Hah! the goaty rascal!) Pan
Hoof it o'er the sloping green,
Mad with his own melody,
Aye, and (bless the beasty man!)
Stamping from the grassy soil
Bruised scents of _fleur-de-lis_,
Boneset, mint and pennyroyal.
Scheme | AABBCCDDEFEFGG ABAHHBBIXBIXXD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1110111 1010111 111101 1111111 1010101 0110101 101111 1101101 101101 1111101 101101 1111101 1011011 1011101 0111101 1011101 1111101 1110101 1010101 0010011 1010111 101101 11100101 1111100 101011 1010101 111111 1101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 818 |
Words | 161 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 14, 14 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 319 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 77 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 49 sec read
- 56 Views
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"Our Boyhood Haunts" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/20996/our-boyhood-haunts>.
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