Analysis of Someone's Mother
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
Someone's Mother trails the street
Wrapt in rotted rags;
Broken slippers on her feet
Drearily she drags;
Drifting in the bitter night,
Gnawing gutter bread,
With a face of tallow white,
Listless as the dead.
Someone's Mother in the dim
Of the grey church wall
Hears within a Christmas hymn,
One she can recall
From the h so long ago,
When divinely far,
in the holy alter glow
She would kneel in prayer.
Someone's Mother, huddled there,
Had so sweet a dream;
Seemed the sky was Heaven's stair,
Golden and agleam,
Robed in gown Communion bright,
Singingly she trod
Up and up the stair of light,
And thee was waiting - God.
Someone's Mother cowers down
By the old church wall;
Soft above the sleeping town
Snow begins to fall;
Now her rags are lily fair,
but unproud is she:
Someone's Mother is not there . . .
Lo! she climbs the starry stair
Only angels see.
Scheme | ABABCDCD EFEFGXGH HIHICJCJ KFKFHLHHL |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110101 10101 1010101 111 1000101 10101 1011101 10101 110001 10111 1010101 1111 1011101 10101 0010101 11101 110101 11101 1011101 10001 1010101 111 1010111 011101 11011 10111 1010101 10111 1011101 1111 110111 1110101 10101 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 832 |
Words | 156 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 9 |
Lines Amount | 33 |
Letters per line (avg) | 20 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 167 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 39 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 48 sec read
- 141 Views
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