Analysis of To a Boy Whistling
James Whitcomb Riley 1849 (Greenfield) – 1916 (Indianapolis)
The smiling face of a happy boy
With its enchanted key
Is now unlocking in memory
My store of heartiest joy.
And my lost life again to-day,
In pleasant colors all aglow,
From rainbow tints, to pure white snow,
Is a panorama sliding away.
The whistled air of a simple tune
Eddies and whirls my thoughts around,
As fairy balloons of thistle-down
Sail through the air of June.
O happy boy with untaught grace!
What is there in the world to give
That can buy one hour of the life you live
Or the trivial cause of your smiling face!
| Scheme | ABBA CDDC EXXE FXXF |
|---|---|
| Poetic Form | Quatrain (50%) |
| Metre | 010110101 110101 110100100 1111001 01110111 01010101 1111111 100101001 010110101 10011101 110011101 110111 1101111 11100111 11111010111 10100111101 |
| Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
| Characters | 520 |
| Words | 102 |
| Sentences | 6 |
| Stanzas | 4 |
| Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4 |
| Lines Amount | 16 |
| Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
| Words per line (avg) | 6 |
| Letters per stanza (avg) | 104 |
| Words per stanza (avg) | 25 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 30 sec read
- 78 Views
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"To a Boy Whistling" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/21147/to-a-boy-whistling>.
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