Analysis of The Ape And God
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
Son put a poser up to me
That made me scratch my head:
"God made the whole wide world," quoth he;
"That's right, my boy," I said.
Said son: "He mad the mountains soar,
And all the plains lie flat;
But Dad, what did he do before
He did all that?
Said I: "Creation was his biz;
He set the stars to shine;
The sun and moon and all that is
Were His unique design.
The Cosmos is his concrete thought,
The Universe his chore..."
Said Son: "I understand, but what
Did He before?"
I gave it up; I could not cope
With his enquiring prod,
And must admit I've little hope
Of understanding God.
Indeed I find more to my mind
The monkey in the tree
In whose crude form Nature defined
Our human destiny.
Thought I: "Why search for Deity
In visionary shape?
'Twould better be if we could see
The angel in the ape.
Let mystic seek a God above:
Far wiser he who delves,
To find in kindliness and love
God in ourselves."
Scheme | ABABCDCD EFEFXCXC GHGHIAIA AJAJKLKL |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11010111 111111 11011111 111111 11110101 010111 11111101 1111 11010111 110111 01010111 010101 01011011 01011 1110111 1101 11111111 1111 01011101 10101 01111111 010001 01111001 1010100 11111100 01001 11011111 010001 11010101 110111 110101 10001 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,007 |
Words | 184 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 21 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 170 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 44 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 54 sec read
- 120 Views
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