Analysis of Winter Fancies

James Whitcomb Riley 1849 (Greenfield) – 1916 (Indianapolis)



Winter without
And warmth within;
The winds may shout
And the storm begin;
The snows may pack
At the window pane,
And the skies grow black,
And the sun remain
Hidden away
The livelong day--
But here--in here is the warmth of May!

Swoop your spitefullest
Up the flue,
Wild Winds--do!
What in the world do I care for you?
O delightfullest
Weather of all,
Howl and squall,
And shake the trees till the last leaves fall!

The joy one feels,
In an easy chair,
Cocking his heels
In the dancing air
That wreathes the rim of a roaring stove
Whose heat loves better than hearts can love,
Will not permit
The coldest day
To drive away
The fire in his blood, and the bliss of it!

Then blow, Winds, blow!
And rave and shriek,
And snarl and snow
Till your breath grows weak--
While here in my room
I'm as snugly shut
As a glad little worm
In the heart of a nut!


Scheme ABABCDCDEEE AFFFAGGG HIHIXXJEEJ KLKLXMXM
Poetic Form
Metre 1001 0101 0111 00101 0111 10101 00111 00101 1001 011 110110111 111 101 111 100111111 11 1011 101 010110111 0111 01101 1011 00101 110110101 111101111 1101 0101 1101 01001100111 1111 0101 0101 11111 11011 11101 101101 001101
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 827
Words 170
Sentences 8
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 11, 8, 10, 8
Lines Amount 37
Letters per line (avg) 18
Words per line (avg) 4
Letters per stanza (avg) 164
Words per stanza (avg) 41
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

51 sec read
134

James Whitcomb Riley

James Whitcomb Riley was an American writer, poet, and best-selling author. During his lifetime he was known as the "Hoosier Poet" and "Children's Poet" for his dialect works and his children's poetry respectively. more…

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