Analysis of My Tails
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
I haven't worn my evening dress
For nearly twenty years;
Oh I'm unsocial, I confess,
A hermit, it appears.
So much moth-balled it's but away,
And though wee wifie wails,
Never unto my dimmest day
I'll don my tails.
How slim and trim I looked in them,
Though I was sixty old;
And now their sleekness I condemn
To lie in rigid fold.
I have a portrait of myself
Proud-printed in the Press,
In garb now doomed to wardrobe shelf,--
My evening dress.
So let this be my last request,
That when I come to die,
In tails I may be deftly drest,
With white waistcoat and tie.
No, not for me a vulgar shroud
My carcass to caress;--
Oh let me do my coffin proud
In evening dress!
Scheme | ABABCDCD EFEFGAGA XHFHIAIA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11011101 110101 111101 010101 11111101 01111 1010111 1111 11011101 111101 0111101 110101 1101011 110001 0111111 1101 11111101 111111 01111101 11101 11110101 110101 11111101 0101 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 740 |
Words | 133 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 21 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 169 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 43 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 41 sec read
- 116 Views
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"My Tails" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/32311/my-tails>.
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