Analysis of The Ape And I
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
Said a monkey unto me:
"How I'm glad I am not you!
See, I swing from tree to tree,
Something that you cannot do.
In gay greenery I drown;
Swift to skyey hights I scale:
As you watch me hang head down
Don't you wish you had a tail?
"Don't you wish that you could wear
In the place of stuffy clothes,
Just a silky coat of hair,
Never shoes to cramp your toes?
Never need to toil for bread,
Round you nuts and fruit and spice;
And with palm tuft for a bed
Happily to crack your lice?"
Said I: "You are right, maybe:
Witting naught of wordly woe,
Gloriously you are free,
And of death you nothing know.
Envying your monkey mind,
Innocent of blight and bale,
As I touch my bald behind
How I wish I had a tail!"
So in toils of trouble caught,
Oft I wonder with a sigh
If that blue-bummed ape is not
Happier than I?
Scheme | ABABCDCD EXEXFGFG AHAHIDID JKJK |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1010101 1111111 1111111 1011101 0110011 111111 1111111 1111101 1111111 0011101 1010111 1011111 1011111 1110101 0111101 1001111 1111110 101111 1000111 0111101 11101 1001101 1111101 1111101 1011101 1110101 1111111 10011 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 798 |
Words | 167 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 4 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 153 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 41 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 50 sec read
- 41 Views
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"The Ape And I" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/32474/the-ape-and-i>.
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