Analysis of The Bohemian Dreams
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
Because my overcoat's in pawn,
I choose to take my glass
Within a little bistro on
The rue du Montparnasse;
The dusty bins with bottles shine,
The counter's lined with zinc,
And there I sit and drink my wine,
And think and think and think.
I think of hoary old Stamboul,
Of Moslem and of Greek,
Of Persian in coat of wool,
Of Kurd and Arab sheikh;
Of all the types of weal and woe,
And as I raise my glass,
Across Galata bridge I know
They pass and pass and pass.
I think of citron-trees aglow,
Of fan-palms shading down,
Of sailors dancing heel and toe
With wenches black and brown;
And though it's all an ocean far
From Yucatan to France,
I'll bet beside the old bazaar
They dance and dance and dance.
I think of Monte Carlo, where
The pallid croupiers call,
And in the gorgeous, guilty air
The gamblers watch the ball;
And as I flick away the foam
With which my beer is crowned,
The wheels beneath the gilded dome
Go round and round and round.
I think of vast Niagara,
Those gulfs of foam a-shine,
Whose mighty roar would stagger a
More prosy bean than mine;
And as the hours I idly spend
Against a greasy wall,
I know that green the waters bend
And fall and fall and fall.
I think of Nijni Novgorod
And Jews who never rest;
And womenfolk with spade and hod
Who slave in Buda-Pest;
Of squat and sturdy Japanese
Who pound the paddy soil,
And as I loaf and smoke at ease
They toil and toil and toil.
I think of shrines in Hindustan,
Of cloistral glooms in Spain,
Of minarets in Ispahan,
Of St. Sophia's fane,
Of convent towers in Palestine,
Of temples in Cathay,
And as I stretch and sip my wine
They pray and pray and pray.
And so my dreams I dwell within,
And visions come and go,
And life is passing like a Cin-
Ematographic Show;
Till just as surely as my pipe
Is underneath my nose,
Amid my visions rich and ripe
I doze and doze and doze.
Scheme | ABXBCDCD EFEFGBGB EHGHIJIJ KEKELMLM NCNCOEOE XPMPQEQE XRARCSCS XGAGTUTU |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 011101 111111 01010101 0111 01011101 01111 01110111 010101 1111011 110011 1100111 110101 11011101 011111 011111 110101 11110101 111101 11010101 110101 01111101 11011 11010101 110101 11110101 01011 00010101 010101 01110101 111111 01010101 110101 1111010 111101 11011100 11111 010101101 010101 11110101 010101 111110 011101 011101 11011 1101001 110101 01110111 110101 1111010 11101 10101 1111 11010010 110001 01110111 110101 01111101 010101 01110101 11 11110111 10111 01110101 110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,789 |
Words | 358 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 64 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 179 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 45 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:49 min read
- 88 Views
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"The Bohemian Dreams" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/32507/the-bohemian-dreams>.
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