Analysis of Old Bob
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
I guess folks think I'm mighty dumb
Since Jack and Jim and Joe
Have hit the trail to Kingdom Come
And left me here below:
Since Death, the bastard, bowled them out,
And left me faced with--Doubt.
My pals have all passed out on me
And I am by my lone;
Old Bill was last, and now I see
His name cut on a stone;
A marble slab, but not as fine
As I have picked for mine.
I nurse and curse rheumatic pain
As on the porch I sit;
With nothing special in my brain
I rock and smoke and spit:
When one is nearing to the end
One sorely needs a friend.
My Pals have gone,--in God's good earth
I guess they're packed up snug,
And since I have no guts for mirth
I zipper to my mug:
The question that I ponder on
Is--where the heck they've gone?
Scheme | ABABCC DEDEFF GHGHII JKJKXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11111101 110101 11011101 011101 11010111 011111 11111111 011111 11110111 111101 01011111 111111 11010101 110111 11010011 110101 11110101 110101 11110111 111111 01111111 110111 01011101 110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 840 |
Words | 154 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 138 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 38 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 14, 2023
- 47 sec read
- 87 Views
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"Old Bob" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/32333/old-bob>.
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