Analysis of My Dentist
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
Sitting in the dentist's chair,
Wishing that I wasn't there,
To forget and pass the time
I have made this bit of rhyme.
I had a rendez-vous at ten;
I rushed to get in line,
But found a lot of dames and men
Had waited there since nine;
I stared at them, then in an hour
Was blandly ushered in;
But though my face was grim and sour
He met me with a grin.
He told me of his horse of blood,
And how it "also ran",
He plans to own a racing stud -
(He seems a wealthy man.)
And then he left me there until
I growled: "At any rate,
I hope he'll not charge in his bill
For all the time I wait."
His wife has sables on her back,
With jewels she's ablaze;
She drives a stately Cadillac,
And I'm the mug who pays:
At least I'm one of those who peer
With pessimistic gloom
At magazines of yester-year
In his damn waiting room.
I am a Christian Scientist;
I don't believe in pain;
My dentist had a powerful wrist,
He tries and tries in vain
To make me grunt or groan or squeal
With probe or rasp or drill. . . .
But oh, what agony I feel
When HE PRESENTS HIS BILL!
Sitting in the dental chair,
Don't you wish you weren't there:
Well, your cup of woe to fill,
Just think of his infernal bill.
Scheme | AABB CDCDEFEF GHGHIJIJ KLKLMNMN OPOPQIQI AAII |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (30%) |
Metre | 1000101 1011101 1010101 1111111 1101111 111101 11011101 110111 111110110 110100 111111010 111101 11111111 011101 11110101 110101 01111101 111101 11111011 110111 11110101 110101 1101010 010111 11111111 10101 110111 011101 11010100 110101 110101001 110101 11111111 111111 11110011 111011 1000101 1111101 1111111 11110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,147 |
Words | 243 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 8, 8, 8, 8, 4 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 148 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 40 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 26, 2023
- 1:15 min read
- 90 Views
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"My Dentist" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/32275/my-dentist>.
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