Analysis of Adoption
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
Because I was a woman lone
And had of friends so few,
I made two little ones my own,
Whose parents no one knew;
Unwanted foundlings of the night,
Left at the convent door,
Whose tiny hands in piteous plight
Seemed to implore.
By Deed to them I gave my name,
And never will they know
That from the evil slums they came,
Two waifs of want and woe;
I fostered them with love and care
As if they were my own:
Now John, my son, is tall and fair,
And dark is Joan.
My boy's a member of the Bar,
My girl a nurse serene;
Yet when I think of what they are
And what they might have been,
With shuddering I glimpse a hell
Of black and bitter fruit . . .
Where John might be a criminal,
And Joan--a prostitute.
Scheme | ABABCDCD EFEFGAGA HXHXXIXI |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01110101 011111 11110111 110111 0101101 110101 1101011 1101 11111111 010111 11010111 111101 11011101 111011 11111101 0111 11010101 110101 11111111 011111 11001101 110101 11110100 01010 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 809 |
Words | 142 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 177 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 48 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 28, 2023
- 42 sec read
- 85 Views
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"Adoption" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/31969/adoption>.
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