Analysis of Reptiles And Roses
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
So crystal clear it is to me
That when I die I cease to be,
All else seems sheer stupidity.
All promises of Paradise
Are wishful thinking, preacher's lies,
Dogmatic dust flung in our eyes.
Yea, life's immortal, swift it flows
Alike in reptile and in rose,
But as it comes, so too it goes.
Dead roses will not bloom again;
The lifeless lizard writhes in vain;
Cups shattered will not hold champagne.
Our breath is brief, and being so
Let's make our heaven here below,
And lavish kindness as we go.
For when dour Death shall close the door
There will be darkness evermore;
So let us kneel in prayer before
Each day and let our duty be
To fight that mankind may be free . . .
There is our Immortality.
Scheme | AAA XBB CCC XDD EEE FFF AAA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11011111 11111111 11110100 1100110 11010101 010110101 11010111 01010001 11111111 11011101 01010101 11011101 101110101 111010101 01010111 111011101 1111010 11110101 110110101 11111111 11100100 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 686 |
Words | 132 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 |
Lines Amount | 21 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 77 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 19 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 14, 2023
- 40 sec read
- 59 Views
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"Reptiles And Roses" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/32394/reptiles-and-roses>.
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