Analysis of At School

John Boyle O'Reilly 1844 (Dowth) – 1890 (Boston)



The bees are in the meadow
And the swallows in the sky;
The cattle in the shadow
Watch the river running by.
The wheat is hardly stirring;
The heavy ox-team lags;
The dragon-fly is whirring
Through the yellow-blossomed flag.
And down beside the river,
Where the trees lean o'er the pool,
Where the shadows reach the quiver
A boy has come to school.
His teachers are the swallow
And the river and the trees;
His lessons are the shallows
And the flowers and the bees.


Scheme ABABCDCEFGFGAHDH
Poetic Form
Metre 011001 0010001 010001 1010101 0111010 010111 0101110 1010101 0101010 10111001 1011010 011111 1101010 0010001 110101 0010001
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 458
Words 87
Sentences 5
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 16
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 23
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 367
Words per stanza (avg) 85
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

26 sec read
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John Boyle O'Reilly

John Boyle O'Reilly was an Irish-born poet, journalist and fiction writer. more…

All John Boyle O'Reilly poems | John Boyle O'Reilly Books

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