Analysis of Property



The red-roofed house of dream design
       Looks three ways on the sea;
For fifty years I've made it mine,
       And held it part of me.
The pines I planted in my youth
       Triumpantly are tall . . .
Yet now I know with sorry sooth
       I have to leave it all.

Hard-hewn from out the living rock
       And salty from the tide,
My house has braved the tempest shock
       With hardihood and pride.
Each nook is memoried to me;
       I've loved its every stone,
And cried to it exultantly:
       "My own, my very own!"

Poor fool! To think that I possess.
       I have but cannot hold;
And all that's mine is less and less
       My own as I grow old.
My home shall ring with childish cheers
       When I shall leave it lone;
My house will bide a hundred years
       When I am in the bone.

Alas! No thing can be my own:
       At most a life-long lease
Is all I hold, a little loan
       From Time, that soon will cease.
For now by faint and failing breath
       I feel that I must go . . .
Old House! You've never known a death,--
       Well, now's your hour to know.


Scheme ABABCDCD EFEFBGBG HIHIJGJG GKGKLMLM
Poetic Form
Metre 01111101 111101 11011111 011111 01110011 111 11111101 111111 11110101 010101 11110101 1101 111111 1111001 01110100 111101 11111101 111101 01111101 111111 11111101 111111 11110101 111001 01111111 110111 11110101 111111 11110101 111111 11110101 1111011
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,066
Words 198
Sentences 19
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8, 8
Lines Amount 32
Letters per line (avg) 23
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 182
Words per stanza (avg) 50
Font size:
 

Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 01, 2023

1:00 min read
116

Robert William Service

Robert William Service was a poet and writer sometimes referred to as the Bard of the Yukon He is best-known for his writings on the Canadian North including the poems The Shooting of Dan McGrew The Law of the Yukon and The Cremation of Sam McGee His writing was so expressive that his readers took him for a hard-bitten old Klondike prospector not the later-arriving bank clerk he actually was Robert William Service was born 16 January 1874 in Preston England but also lived in Scotland before emigrating to Canada in 1894 Service went to the Yukon Territory in 1904 as a bank clerk and became famous for his poems about this region which are mostly in his first two books of poetry He wrote quite a bit of prose as well and worked as a reporter for some time but those writings are not nearly as well known as his poems He travelled around the world quite a bit and narrowly escaped from France at the beginning of the Second World War during which time he lived in Hollywood California He died 11 September 1958 in France Incidentally he played himself in a movie called The Spoilers starring John Wayne and Marlene Dietrich more…

All Robert William Service poems | Robert William Service Books

7 fans

Discuss this Robert William Service poem analysis with the community:

0 Comments

    Citation

    Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:

    Style:MLAChicagoAPA

    "Property" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/32383/property>.

    Become a member!

    Join our community of poets and poetry lovers to share your work and offer feedback and encouragement to writers all over the world!

    April 2024

    Poetry Contest

    Join our monthly contest for an opportunity to win cash prizes and attain global acclaim for your talent.
    2
    days
    19
    hours
    20
    minutes

    Special Program

    Earn Rewards!

    Unlock exciting rewards such as a free mug and free contest pass by commenting on fellow members' poems today!

    Browse Poetry.com

    Quiz

    Are you a poetry master?

    »
    In what year did Alexander Pope wrote "Farewell to London"?
    A 1725
    B 1744
    C 1690
    D 1715