Analysis of Stowaway
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
We'd left the sea-gulls long behind,
And we were almost in mid-ocean;
The sky was soft and blue and kind,
The boat had scarcely any motion;
Except that songfully it sped,
And sheared the foam swift as an arrow . . .
There fluttered down a city sparrow.
I stared with something of surprise;
The apparition mocked my seeming;
In fact I gently rubbed my eyes
And wondered if I were not dreaming.
It must, I mused, at Montreal
Have hopped abroad, somewhere to nestle,
And failed to hear the warning call
For visitors to leave he vessel.
Well, anyway a bird it was,
With winky eyes and wings a-twitter,
Unwise to migration Laws,
From Canada a hardy flitter;
And as it hopped about the deck
So happily I wondered whether
It wasn't scramming from Quebec
For London's mild and moister weather.
My rover's heart went out to it,
That vain, vivacious little devil;
And as I watched it hop and flit
I hoped it would not come to evil;
It planned above the plangent sea
(A foolish flight, I'd never risk it),
And then it circled back to me
And from my palm picked crumbs of biscuit.
Well, voyages come to an end
(WE make them with that understanding);
One morn I missed my feathered friend,
And hope it made a happy landing.
Oh may she ever happy be
(It 'twas a "she") with eggs to sit on,
And rest on our side of he sea,
A brave, brown, cheery, chirping Briton.
Scheme | ABABXCC DEDEFGFG XHXCIHIH JGJGKJKX LELEKXKB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11011101 01010110 01110101 011101010 011111 010111110 110101010 11110101 00101110 01110111 010110110 1111101 11011110 01110101 110011110 1100111 11101010 0110101 11000101 01110101 110011010 1101101 11010110 11011111 110101010 01111101 111111110 1101011 010111011 01110111 011111110 11001111 11111010 11111101 011101010 11110101 110111111 011101111 011101010 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,318 |
Words | 252 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 7, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 39 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 208 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 51 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:17 min read
- 105 Views
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