Analysis of An Epicure
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
Should you preserve white mice in honey
Don't use imported ones from China,
For though they cost you less in money
You'll find the Japanese ones finer.
But if Chinese, stuff them with spice,
Which certainly improves their savour,
And though the Canton mice are nice,
The Pekinese have finer flavour.
If you should pickle bracken shoots
The way the wily Japanese do,
Be sure to pluck then young - what suits
Our Eastern taste may fail to please you.
And as for nettles, cook them well;
To eat them raw may give you skin-itch;
But if you boil them for a spell
They taste almost as good as spinach.
So Reader, if you chance to be
Of Oriental food a lover,
And care to share a meal with me,
I'll add the addled eggs of plover;
And gaily I will welcome you
To lunch within an arbour sunny,
On nettle broth and bracken stew.
And nice white mice, conserved in honey.
Scheme | AXABCBCB DEDEFXFX ABABEAEA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110111010 110101110 111111010 11001110 11011111 11000111 01010111 011101 11110101 01010011 11111111 1010111111 01110111 111111111 11111101 11111110 11011111 10101010 01110111 110101110 01011101 110111010 11010101 011101010 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 844 |
Words | 164 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 224 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 54 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 01, 2023
- 50 sec read
- 61 Views
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