Analysis of Agnostic Apology
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
I am a stout materialist;
With abstract terms I can't agree,
And so I've made a little list
Of words that don't make sense to me.
To fool my reason I refuse,
For honest thinking is my goal;
And that is why I rarely use
Vague words like Soul.
In terms of matter I am sure
This world of our can be defined;
And so with theories obscure
I will not mystify my mind;
And though I use it more or less,
Describing alcoholic scenes,
I do not know, I must confess,
What Spirit means.
When I survey this cosmic scene,
The term "Creator" seems absurd;
The Universe has always been,
Creation never has occurred.
But in my Lexicon of Doubt
It strikes me definitely odd,
One word I never dare to flout,
One syllable the mountains shout,
Three letters that the stars spell out:
GOD.
Scheme | ABABXCXC DEDEFGFG XHXHIJIIIJ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110101000 10111101 01110101 11111111 11110101 11010111 01111101 1111 01110111 111101101 0111001 1111011 01111111 0100101 11111101 1101 11011101 01010101 010111 01010101 1011011 11110001 11110111 11000101 11010111 1 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 774 |
Words | 148 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 10 |
Lines Amount | 26 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 198 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 49 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 45 sec read
- 133 Views
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"Agnostic Apology" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/31973/agnostic-apology>.
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