Analysis of The Prisoner



Upspoke the culprit at the bar,
          Conducting his own case:
'Your Lordship, I have gone to far,
          But grant me of your grace.
As I was passing by a shop
          I saw my arm go out,
And though I begged of it to stop,
          It stole beyond a doubt.

'But why should my whole body be
          Condemned to dungeon grim,
For what in fact was only the
          Transgression of a limb?
So here before the Court I stand,
          And beg in Justice' name:
Please penalise my arm and hand,
          But not my frame.'

Outspoke the Judge with voice of ice,
          Although a smile he hid:
'Quite right! You should not pay the price
          For what one member did.
Your reasoning I must admit;
          Your arm should gaol expect . . .
Three months! And if you follow it
          The Court does not object.'

The culprit smiled with sudden charm,
          Then to the Court's dismay,
Quickly removed a wooden arm
                    And went away.


Scheme ABABCDCD XEXEFGFG HIHIJKJK LMLM
Poetic Form
Metre 1010101 010111 1111111 111111 11110101 111111 01111111 110101 11111101 011101 11011100 010101 11010111 010101 111101 1111 1011111 10111 11111101 111101 11001101 111101 11011101 011110 01011101 110101 10010101 0101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 953
Words 163
Sentences 13
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8, 4
Lines Amount 28
Letters per line (avg) 22
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 157
Words per stanza (avg) 41
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

48 sec read
54

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…

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