Analysis of The Circus-Day Parade
James Whitcomb Riley 1849 (Greenfield) – 1916 (Indianapolis)
Oh, the Circus-Day parade! How the bugles played and played!
And how the glossy horses tossed their flossy manes, and neighed,
As the rattle and the rhyme of the tenor-drummer's time
Filled all the hungry hearts of us with melody sublime!
How the grand band-wagon shone with a splendor all its own,
And glittered with a glory that our dreams had never known!
And how the boys behind, high and low of every kind,
Marched in unconscious capture, with a rapture undefined!
How the horsemen, two and two, with their plumes of white and blue,
And crimson, gold and purple, nodding by at me and you.
Waved the banners that they bore, as the Knights in days of yore,
Till our glad eyes gleamed and glistened like the spangles that they wore!
How the graceless-graceful stride of the elephant was eyed,
And the capers of the little horse that cantered at his side!
How the shambling camels, tame to the plaudits of their fame,
With listless eyes came silent, masticating as they came.
How the cages jolted past, with each wagon battened fast,
And the mystery within it only hinted of at last
From the little grated square in the rear, and nosing there
The snout of some strange animal that sniffed the outer air!
And, last of all, The Clown, making mirth for all the town,
With his lips curved ever upward and his eyebrows ever down,
And his chief attention paid to the little mule that played
A tattoo on the dashboard with his heels, in the parade.
Oh! the Circus-Day parade! How the bugles played and played!
And how the glossy horses tossed their flossy manes and neighed.
As the rattle and the rhyme of the tenor-drummer's time
Filled all the hungry hearts of us with melody sublime!
Scheme | AABB ccdd eeff gghh iijj kkaa AABB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 10101011010101 0101010111101 1010001101011 11010111110001 10111011010111 010101011011101 01010110111001 101010101001 10101011111101 01010101011101 10101111010111 110111010101111 10101011010011 00101010111111 1011011010111 11011101111 1010101111011 001000111010111 10101010010101 01111100110101 0111011011101 11111010011101 01101011010111 0011011110001 10101011010101 0101010111101 1010001101011 11010111110001 |
Closest metre | Iambic heptameter |
Characters | 1,661 |
Words | 303 |
Sentences | 17 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 47 |
Words per line (avg) | 11 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 190 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 43 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 10, 2023
- 1:31 min read
- 64 Views
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"The Circus-Day Parade" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/21047/the-circus-day-parade>.
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