Analysis of Tea On The Lawn
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
It was foretold by sybils three
that in an air crash he would die.
"I'll fool their prophesy," said he;
"You won't get me to go on high.
Howe're the need for haste and speed,
I'll never, never, never fly."
It's true he traveled everywhere,
Afar and near, by land and sea,
Yet he would never go by air
And chance an evil destiny.
Always by ship or rail he went -
For him no sky-plane accident.
Then one day walking on the heath
He watched a pilot chap on high,
And chuckled as he stood beneath
That lad a-looping in the sky.
Feeling so safe and full of glee
Serenely he went home to tea.
With buttered toast he told his wife:
"My dear, you can't say I've been rash;
Three fortune tellers said my life
Would end up in an air-plane crash.
But see! I'm here so safe and sound:
By gad! I'll never leave the ground.
"For me no baptism of air;
It's in my bed I mean to die.
Behold yon crazy fool up there,
A-cutting capers in the sky.
His motor makes a devilish din . . .
Look! Look! He's gone into a spin.
"He's dashing downward - "Oh my God!" . . .
Alas! he never finished tea.
The motor ploughed the garden sod
And in the crash a corpse was he:
Proving that no man can frustrate
The merciless design of Fate.
Scheme | ABABXB CACAXX DBDBAA EFEFGG CBCBHH IAIAJJ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101111 10111111 111111 11111111 11011101 11010101 1111010 01011101 11110111 01110100 1111111 11111100 11110101 11010111 01011101 11010001 10110111 010011111 11011111 11111111 11010111 11101111 11111101 11110101 11110011 10111111 01110111 01010001 11010101 11110101 11010111 01110101 01010101 00010111 1011111 01000111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,182 |
Words | 239 |
Sentences | 27 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 149 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 40 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 29, 2023
- 1:14 min read
- 162 Views
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"Tea On The Lawn" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/32464/tea-on-the-lawn>.
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