Analysis of Scraps

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



There's a habit I have nurtured,
From the sentimental time
When my life was like a story,
And my heart a happy rhyme,--
Of clipping from the paper,
Or magazine, perhaps,
The idle songs of dreamers,
Which I treasure as my scraps.

They hide among my letters,
And they find a cozy nest
In the bosom of my wrapper,
And the pockets of my vest;
They clamber in my fingers
Till my dreams of wealth relapse
In fairer dreams than Fortune's
Though I find them only scraps.

Sometimes I find, in tatters
Like a beggar, form as fair
As ever gave to Heaven
The treasure of a prayer;
And words all dim and faded,
And obliterate in part,
Grow into fadeless meanings
That are printed on the heart.

Sometimes a childish jingle
Flings an echo, sweet and clear,
And thrills me as I listen
To the laughs I used to hear;
And I catch the gleam of faces,
And the glimmer of glad eyes
That peep at me expectant
O'er the walls of Paradise.

O syllables of measure!
Though you wheel yourselves in line,
And await the further order
Of this eager voice of mine;
You are powerless to follow
O'er the field my fancy maps,
So I lead you back to silence
Feeling you are only scraps.


Scheme XAXABCDC DEBEDCXC DFGFXHXH XXGXXXXX BIBIXCXC
Poetic Form Etheree  (35%)
Metre 10101110 100101 11111010 0110101 1101010 11001 0101110 1110111 1101110 0110101 00101110 0010111 1100110 1111101 0101110 1111101 0111010 1010111 1101110 010101 0111010 001001 101110 1110101 0101010 1110101 0111110 1011111 01101110 0010111 1111010 1001110 1100110 1110101 00101010 1110111 11100110 10011101 11111110 1011101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,117
Words 221
Sentences 7
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8, 8, 8
Lines Amount 40
Letters per line (avg) 22
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 179
Words per stanza (avg) 44
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 03, 2023

1:07 min read
54

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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    The repetition of vowel sounds is an example of _______.
    A rhythm
    B assonance
    C rhyme
    D repetition