Analysis of The Shorter Week
Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis 1876 (Auburn) – 1938 (Melbourne)
I worked for fifty hours a week,
And someone said to me,
'Don't be a serf! Throw off your chains,
And show the world you're free!'
So I cut down my working hours
And found, upon the whole,
The leisure time I had to spare
Good for my body's carking care,
And better for my soul.
I worked for forty hours a week,
And someone said to me,
'Release your bonds, you shackled slave!
Show all the world you're free!'
So I reduced my working hours
And found in leisured lull,
The more I sought to play, the more
Amusement had become a bore,
And life was rather dull.
I worked for twenty hours a week,
And someone said to me
'Awake, you mutt! Snap out of it,
And show the world you're free!'
So I cut out my working hours
And found that joy had flit.
Upon black melancholia's brink,
I sometimes used to sit and think
And sometimes merely sit.
I worked for not one hour a week,
And someone said to me,
'You lazy coot! Arise and shine!
You call this being free?'
So I resolved I'd better far
Rejoin the toiling mob.
But when I rose and looked around,
To my intense digust I found
Someone had pinched my job.
Scheme | aBxBcdeed aBxbcfggf aBhBchiih aBxbxjkkj |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111101001 01111 11011111 010111 111111010 010101 01011111 1111011 010111 111101001 01111 01111101 110111 110111010 01011 01111101 01010101 011101 111101001 01111 01111111 010111 111111010 011111 01111 10111101 001101 111111001 01111 11010101 111101 11011101 010101 11110101 1101111 11111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,071 |
Words | 220 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 9, 9, 9, 9 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 208 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 54 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:06 min read
- 108 Views
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"The Shorter Week" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/6757/the-shorter-week>.
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