Analysis of Ruins
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
Ruins in Rome are four a penny,
And here along the Appian Way
I see the monuments of many
Esteemed almighty in their day. . . .
Or so he makes me understand -
My glib guide of the rubber bus,
And tells me with a gesture grand:
"Behold! the tomb of Romulus."
Whereat I stared with eyes of awe,
And yet a whit dismayed was I,
When on its crumbling wall I saw
A washing hanging out to dry;
Yea, that relict of slow decay,
With peristyle and gnarly frieze,
Was garnished with a daft display
Of bifurcation and chemise.
But as we went our Southward way
Another ruin soon I saw;
No antique tower, gaunt and grey,
But modern manor rubbled raw;
And on its sill a maiden sat,
And told me in a tone of rue:
It was your allied bombs did that . . .
But do not think we're blaming you."
Thought I: Time is more kind than we
Who blot out beauty with a blow;
And truly it was sad to see
A gracious mansion levelled low . . .
While moulderings of ancient Rome
Still serve the peasants for their swine,
We do not leave a lovely home
A wall to hang a washing line.
Scheme | ABABCDCD EFGFBHBH BGBEIJIJ AKAKLMLM |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 100111010 010101001 110100110 01010011 1111101 11110101 01110101 01011100 1111111 01010111 111100111 01010111 1111101 1100101 11010101 1010001 111110101 01010111 10110101 1101011 01110101 01100111 11101111 11111101 11111111 11110101 01011111 01010101 111101 11010111 11110101 01110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,023 |
Words | 207 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 199 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 53 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:01 min read
- 110 Views
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"Ruins" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/32417/ruins>.
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