Analysis of O Lovely Lie
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
I told a truth, a tragic truth
That tore the sullen sky;
A million shuddered at my sooth
And anarchist was I.
Red righteousness was in my word
To winnow evil chaff;
Yet while I swung crusading sword
I heard the devil laugh.
I framed a lie, a rainbow lie
To glorify a thought;
And none was so surprised as I
When fast as fire it caught.
Like honey people lapped my lie
And peddled it abroad,
Till in a lift of sunny sky
I saw the smile of God.
If falsehood may be best, I thought,
To hell with verity;
Dark truth may be a cancer spot
'Twere better not to see.
Aye, let a lie be big and bold
Yet ripe with hope and ruth,
Beshrew me! but its heart may hold
More virtue than the truth.
Scheme | ABABXCXC BDBEBXBX DFEFGAGA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11010101 110101 01010111 010011 11001011 11101 11110101 110101 1101011 11001 01110111 1111011 11010111 010101 10011101 110111 1111111 111100 11110101 110111 11011101 111101 1111111 110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 786 |
Words | 141 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 175 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 46 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 42 sec read
- 124 Views
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"O Lovely Lie" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/32330/o-lovely-lie>.
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