This is an analysis of When The Hearse Comes Back by James Whitcomb Riley.

A thing 'at's 'bout as tryin' as a healthy man kin meet
Is some poor feller's funeral a-joggin' 'long the street:…

Read full poem

Structure

  • Rhyme scheme: aaaabbcXDebc bbffaacXDebc eeeXggccDebc ggbbXXcXDebX
  • Stanza lengths: 12,12,12,12,
  • Metre: 01111101010111 01110100010101 01110101010111 10101010010001 01100101011001 01110101110001 111010101110111 0101010 10 1 1 1 101010100110111 11011111011101 11010101110101 11001111110101 11000111010001 11110110111001 10011111010111 1101110 10 1 1 1 0101110011111 10111101010101 11010010111101 1111110110101 11010101110111 010110101010100 01011111111111 0101111 10 1 1 1 01010111011101 11010111111111 1101010111101 1101010110101 11111101111101 11011101110100 01111101010101 11111110 10 1 1 1
  • Closest metre: iambic pentameter
  • Guessed form: blank verse
  • Stanzas: 4
  • Lines: 48

Repeated words/phrases

of, slow, to, and, his, fer

Anaphora

the, yer, when, and