Analysis of Aunt Jane
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
When Aunt Jane died we hunted round,
And money everywhere we found.
How much I do not care to say,
But no death duties will we pay,
And Aunt Jane will be well content
We bilked the bloody Government.
While others spent she loved to save,
But couldn't take it to her grave.
While others save we love to spend;
She hated us but in the end
Because she left no Testament
To us all her possessions went.
That is to say they did not find
A lawyer's Will of any kind.
Yet there was one in her own hand,
A Home for Ailing Cats she planned.
Well, you can understand my ire:
Promptly I put it in the fire.
In misery she chose to die,
Yet we will make her money fly.
And as we mourn for poor Aunt Jane
The thought alleviates our pain:
Perhaps her savings in the end
Gave her more joy than we who spend.
Scheme | AABBCD EEFFDC GGHHXX IIJJFF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11111101 0101011 11111111 11110111 01111110 11010100 11011111 11011101 11011111 11011001 01111100 11100101 11111111 01011101 11110011 01110111 1110111 101110010 01001111 11110101 01111111 010100101 01010001 10111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 776 |
Words | 162 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 153 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 40 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 01, 2023
- 49 sec read
- 136 Views
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"Aunt Jane" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/31996/aunt-jane>.
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