Analysis of The Spaewife
Robert Louis Stevenson 1850 (Edinburgh) – 1894 (Vailima, Samoa)
OH, I wad like to ken—to the beggar-wife says I—
Why chops are guid to brander and nane sae guid to fry.
An’ siller, that ’s sae braw to keep, is brawer still to gi’e.
It ’s gey an’ easy spierin’, says the beggar-wife to me.
Oh, I wad like to ken—to the beggar-wife says I—
Hoo a’things come to be whaur we find them when we try,
The lasses in their claes an’ the fishes in the sea.
It ’s gey an’ easy spierin’, says the beggar-wife to me.
Oh, I wad like to ken—to the beggar-wife says I—
Why lads are a’ to sell an’lasses a’ to buy;
An’ naebody for dacency but barely twa or three.
It ’s gey an’ easy spierin’, says the beggar-wife to me.
Oh, I wad like to ken—to the beggar-wife says I—
Gin death’s as shure to men as killin’ is to kye,
Why God has filled the yearth sae fu’ o’ tasty things to pree.
It ’s gey an’ easy spierin’, says the beggar-wife to me.
Oh, I wad like to ken—to the beggar-wife says I—
The reason o’ the cause an’ the wherefore o’ the why,
Wi’ mony anither riddle brings the tear into my e’e.
It ’s gey an’ easy spierin’, says the beggar-wife to me.
Scheme | AaxB AabB AabB AxbB AabB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (60%) |
Metre | 1111111010111 1111110011111 110111111110111 11111011010111 1111111010111 111111111111 010111010001 11111011010111 1111111010111 1110111011 1111110111 11111011010111 1111111010111 111111110111 11110111110111 11111011010111 1111111010111 010101101101 1101101010111 11111011010111 |
Closest metre | Iambic heptameter |
Characters | 1,165 |
Words | 219 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 20 |
Letters per line (avg) | 39 |
Words per line (avg) | 11 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 155 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 43 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 29, 2023
- 1:05 min read
- 65 Views
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"The Spaewife" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/31708/the-spaewife>.
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