Analysis of The Hinterland
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
You speak to me, but does your speech
With truest truth your thought convey?
I listen to your words and each
Is what I wait to hear you say.
The pattern that your lips reveal,
How does it measure with your mind?
What undertones do you conceal?
Your smile is sweet - but what's behind?
I speak to you, but do I tell
The secret working of my brain?
Frank honesty would make life hell,
And truth be tantamount to pain.
When deep into the mind one delves,
Appalling verities we view;
If we betrayed our inner selves,
Would you hate man and I hate you?
Are we not strangers each to each,
And all alone we live and die?
Deception is the stuff of speech,
And life a smug and glossy lie,
Where puppet-like our parts we play:
The first in public we rehearse,
The second when we shrink away
into our private universe.
The soul has its grim hinterland
'Twere better never to explore;
Dark jungles where obscenely planned
Prowl monsters of primaeval lore;
With primal fear our lives are fraught,
And cravenly we cower behind
The silences of secret thought,
The murky mazes of the Mind.
Scheme | ABABCDCD EFEFGHGH AIAIBJBJ KLKLMDMD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11111111 11011101 11011101 11111111 01011101 11110111 1101101 11111101 11111111 01010111 11001111 0111011 11010111 01010011 110110101 11110111 11110111 01011101 01010111 01010101 110110111 01010101 01011101 01101010 0111110 11010101 110101001 110111 110110111 0111001 01001101 01010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,050 |
Words | 201 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 211 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 50 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 19, 2023
- 1:00 min read
- 143 Views
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"The Hinterland" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/32555/the-hinterland>.
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