Analysis of That Other Maud Muller
James Whitcomb Riley 1849 (Greenfield) – 1916 (Indianapolis)
Maud Muller worked at making hay,
And cleared her forty cents a day.
Her clothes were coarse, but her health was fine,
And so she worked in the sweet sunshine
Singing as glad as a bird in May
'Barbara Allen' the livelong day.
She often glanced at the far-off town,
And wondered if eggs were up or down.
And the sweet song died of a strange disease,
Leaving a phantom taste of cheese,
And an appetite and a nameless ache
For soda-water and ginger cake.
The judge rode slowly into view--
Stopped his horse in the shade and threw
His fine-cut out, while the blushing Maud
Marveled much at the kind he 'chawed.'
'He was dry as a fish,' he said with a wink,
'And kind o' thought that a good square drink
Would brace him up.' So the cup was filled
With the crystal wine that old spring spilled;
And she gave it him with a sun-browned hand.
'Thanks,' said the judge in accents bland;
'A thousand thanks! for a sweeter draught,
From a fairer hand'--but there he laughed.
And the sweet girl stood in the sun that day,
And raked the judge instead of the hay.
Scheme | AA BB AA CC DD EE FF GG HH II JJ KK AA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Couplet |
Metre | 11011101 01010101 010110111 01110011 101110101 10010011 110110111 010110111 0011110101 10010111 011000101 110100101 01110011 11100101 111110101 10110111 11110111101 011110111 111110111 101011111 0111110111 11010101 010110101 101011111 0011100111 010101101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,031 |
Words | 204 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 13 |
Stanza Lengths | 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2 |
Lines Amount | 26 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 62 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 15 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:00 min read
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"That Other Maud Muller" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 23 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/21030/that-other-maud-muller>.
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