Analysis of For You

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



For you, I could forget the gay
Delirium of merriment,
And let my laughter die away
In endless silence of content.
I could forget, for your dear sake,
The utter emptiness and ache
Of every loss I ever knew.--
What could I not forget for you?

I could forget the just deserts
Of mine own sins, and so erase
The tear that burns, the smile that hurts,
And all that mars or masks my face.
For your fair sake I could forget
The bonds of life that chafe and fret,
Nor care if death were false or true.--
What could I not forget for you?

What could I not forget? Ah me!
One thing, I know, would still abide
Forever in my memory,
Though all of love were lost beside--
I yet would feel how first the wine
Of your sweet lips made fools of mine
Until they sung, all drunken through--
'What could I not forget for you?'


Scheme ababccdD efefbbdD gbgbhhdD
Poetic Form
Metre 11110101 010011 01110101 01010110 11011111 01010001 110011101 11110111 11010110 11110101 01110111 01111111 11111101 01111101 11110111 11110111 11110111 11111101 01001100 11110101 11111101 11111111 01111101 11110111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 791
Words 164
Sentences 10
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 26
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 206
Words per stanza (avg) 53
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

48 sec read
111

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…

All James Whitcomb Riley poems | James Whitcomb Riley Books

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