Analysis of Her Hair
James Whitcomb Riley 1849 (Greenfield) – 1916 (Indianapolis)
The beauty of her hair bewilders me--
Pouring adown the brow, its cloven tide
Swirling about the ears on either side
And storming round the neck tumultuously:
Or like the lights of old antiquity
Through mullioned windows, in cathedrals wide
Spilled moltenly o'er figures deified
In chastest marble, nude of drapery.
And so I love it--. Either unconfined;
Or plaited in close braidings manifold;
Or smoothly drawn; or indolently twined
In careless knots whose coilings come unrolled
At any lightest kiss; or by the wind
Whipped out in flossy ravellings of gold.
Scheme | ABBCABBADEDBDE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0101010101 10101111 1001011101 0101011 1101110100 111000101 11101010 011011100 011111001 11001110 1101111 01011111 1101011101 1101111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 555 |
Words | 94 |
Sentences | 4 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 14 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 453 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 92 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 02, 2023
- 28 sec read
- 94 Views
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"Her Hair" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/20901/her-hair>.
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