Analysis of The Old Guitar
James Whitcomb Riley 1849 (Greenfield) – 1916 (Indianapolis)
Neglected now is the old guitar
And moldering into decay;
Fretted with many a rift and scar
That the dull dust hides away,
While the spider spins a silver star
In its silent lips to-day.
The keys hold only nerveless strings--
The sinews of brave old airs
Are pulseless now; and the scarf that clings
So closely here declares
A sad regret in its ravelings
And the faded hue it wears.
But the old guitar, with a lenient grace,
Has cherished a smile for me;
And its features hint of a fairer face
That comes with a memory
Of a flower-and-perfume-haunted place
And a moonlit balcony.
Music sweeter than words confess,
Or the minstrel's powers invent,
Thrilled here once at the light caress
Of the fairy hands that lent
This excuse for the kiss I press
On the dear old instrument.
The rose of pearl with the jeweled stem
Still blooms; and the tiny sets
In the circle all are here; the gem
In the keys, and the silver frets;
But the dainty fingers that danced o'er them--
Alas for the heart's regrets!--
Alas for the loosened strings to-day,
And the wounds of rift and scar
On a worn old heart, with its roundelay
Enthralled with a stronger bar
That Fate weaves on, through a dull decay
Like that of the old guitar!
Scheme | ABABAB CDCDCD EFEFEF GHGHGX IJIJIJ BAXABA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 010110101 010101 101100101 1011101 101010101 0110111 0111011 011111 11100111 110101 0101011 0010111 10101101001 1100111 0110110101 1110100 1010001101 001100 10101101 1011001 11110101 1010111 10110111 1011100 01111011 1100101 001011101 00100101 10101011101 0110101 011010111 0011101 10111111 0110101 111110101 1110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,182 |
Words | 226 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 159 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 37 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 17, 2023
- 1:08 min read
- 121 Views
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"The Old Guitar" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/21085/the-old-guitar>.
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