Analysis of The Good, Old-Fashioned People
James Whitcomb Riley 1849 (Greenfield) – 1916 (Indianapolis)
When we hear Uncle Sidney tell
About the long-ago
An' old, old friends he loved so well
When _he_ was young--My-oh!--
Us childern all wish _we'd 'a'_ bin
A-livin' then with Uncle,--so
We could a-kindo' happened in
On them old friends he used to know!--
The good, old-fashioned people--
The hale, hard-working people--
The kindly country people
'At Uncle used to know!
They was God's people, Uncle says,
An' gloried in His name,
An' worked, without no selfishness,
An' loved their neighbers same
As they was kin: An' when they biled
Their tree-molasses, in the Spring,
Er butchered in the Fall, they smiled
An' sheered with all jist ever'thing!--
The good, old-fashioned people--
The hale, hard-working people--
The kindly country people
'At Uncle used to know!
He tells about 'em, lots o' times,
Till we'd all ruther hear
About 'em than the Nurs'ry Rhymes
Er Fairies--mighty near!--
Only sometimes he stops so long
An' then talks on so low an' slow,
It's purt'-nigh sad as any song
To listen to him talkin' so
Of the good, old-fashioned people--
The hale, hard-working people--
The kindly country people
'At Uncle used to know!
Scheme | ababcbcbDDDB xexefgfg DDDB hxhxibibdDDB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11110101 010101 11111111 111111 1111111 0111101 1101100 11111111 0111010 0111010 0101010 110111 11110101 11011 11011100 11111 11111111 11010001 01000111 11111101 0111010 0111010 0101010 110111 11011111 111101 0111011 010101 10011111 11111111 11111101 11011101 10111010 0111010 0101010 110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,100 |
Words | 198 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 12, 8, 4, 12 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 212 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 48 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 26, 2023
- 1:01 min read
- 117 Views
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"The Good, Old-Fashioned People" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 23 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/21057/the-good%2C-old-fashioned-people>.
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