Analysis of To Hear Her Sing
James Whitcomb Riley 1849 (Greenfield) – 1916 (Indianapolis)
To hear her sing--to hear her sing--
It is to hear the birds of Spring
In dewy groves on blooming sprays
Pour out their blithest roundelays.
It is to hear the robin trill
At morning, or the whip-poor-will
At dusk, when stars are blossoming--
To hear her sing--to hear her sing!
To hear her sing--it is to hear
The laugh of childhood ringing clear
In woody path or grassy lane
Our feet may never fare again.
Faint, far away as Memory dwells,
It is to hear the village bells
At twilight, as the truant hears
Them, hastening home, with smiles and tears.
Such joy it is to hear her sing,
We fall in love with everything--
The simple things of every day
Grow lovelier than words can say.
The idle brooks that purl across
The gleaming pebbles and the moss,
We love no less than classic streams--
The Rhines and Arnos of our dreams.
To hear her sing--with folded eyes,
It is, beneath Venetian skies,
To hear the gondoliers' refrain,
Or troubadours of sunny Spain.--
To hear the bulbul's voice that shook
The throat that trilled for Lalla Rookh:
What wonder we in homage bring
Our hearts to her--to hear her sing!
Scheme | Aabb ccaA xxdx eexx aaff gghh iidd xaaa |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (75%) |
Metre | 11011101 11110111 01011101 11111 11110101 11010111 11111100 11011101 11011111 0111101 01011101 101110101 110111001 11110101 1110101 110011101 11111101 1101110 010111001 111111 01011101 01010001 11111101 01011101 11011101 11010101 1100101 111101 1101111 01111101 11010101 101101101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,082 |
Words | 205 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 107 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 25 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:01 min read
- 87 Views
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"To Hear Her Sing" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/21150/to-hear-her-sing>.
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