Analysis of Sympathy



My Muse is simple,--yet it's nice
To think you don't need to think twice
                    On words I write.
I reckon I've a common touch
And if you say I cuss too much
                    I answer: 'Quite!'

I envy not the poet's lot;
He has something I haven't got,
                    Alas, I know.
But I have something maybe he
Would envy just a mite in me,--
                    I'm rather low.

For I am cast of common clay,
And from a ditch I fought my way,
                    And that is why
The while the poet scans the skies,
My gaze is grimly gutterwise,
                    Earthy am I.

And yet I have a gift, perhaps
Denied to proud poetic chaps
                    Who scoff at me;
I know the hearts of humble folk;
I too have bowed beneath the yoke:
So let my verse for them evoke
                    Your sympathy.


Scheme AABCCB DDEFFE GGHXAH IIFJJJF
Poetic Form Tetractys  (24%)
Metre 11110111 11111111 1111 11010101 01111111 1101 11010101 11101101 0111 11110101 11010101 1101 11111101 01011111 0111 01010101 111101 1011 01110101 01110101 1111 11011101 11110101 11111101 1100
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 815
Words 144
Sentences 7
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6, 7
Lines Amount 25
Letters per line (avg) 20
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 125
Words per stanza (avg) 35
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

44 sec read
57

Robert William Service

Robert William Service was a poet and writer sometimes referred to as the Bard of the Yukon He is best-known for his writings on the Canadian North including the poems The Shooting of Dan McGrew The Law of the Yukon and The Cremation of Sam McGee His writing was so expressive that his readers took him for a hard-bitten old Klondike prospector not the later-arriving bank clerk he actually was Robert William Service was born 16 January 1874 in Preston England but also lived in Scotland before emigrating to Canada in 1894 Service went to the Yukon Territory in 1904 as a bank clerk and became famous for his poems about this region which are mostly in his first two books of poetry He wrote quite a bit of prose as well and worked as a reporter for some time but those writings are not nearly as well known as his poems He travelled around the world quite a bit and narrowly escaped from France at the beginning of the Second World War during which time he lived in Hollywood California He died 11 September 1958 in France Incidentally he played himself in a movie called The Spoilers starring John Wayne and Marlene Dietrich more…

All Robert William Service poems | Robert William Service Books

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