Analysis of The Seance



"The spirits do not like the light,"
The medium said, and turned the switch;
The little lady on my right
Clutched at my hand with nervous twitch.
(She seemed to be a pretty bitch.)

The moustached women on my left,
With spirits on hr heavy breath,
Lasciviously leaned her heft
On me as one who languisheth.
The sordid room was still as death.

"A shape I see," the medium cried,
"Whose face and name I do not know . . ."
"'Tis Robert service," soft replied
A voice - "I passed a month ago,
And I've come back to let you know.

"The Other Side is gay and bright;
We are so happy there and free,
And Dan McGrew I oft recite,
And follow up with Sam McGee . . .
But now excuse me, I must flee."

The fat dame leaned to get my ear,
(Her breast was soft as feather bed.)
"I love his verses; oh dear, dear,
I didn't know that he was dead."
"No more did I," I sourly said.

The little lady grabbed me hard;
(She looked to me a "yesful" dear.)
Said she: "Don't you adore the Bard?"
Said I: "Before he fades, I fear
I'd like to kick his astral rear."

So then I bravely broke away
From spooks and ectoplasic gauze.
Yet in the brazen light of day
I had to pinch myself because
Really! I wondered if I was.


Scheme ABABB CDCDD EFEFF AGAGG XHIHH JIJII KLKLX
Poetic Form Tetractys  (20%)
Metre 01011101 010010101 01010111 11111101 11110101 0110111 11011101 1101 111111 01011111 011101001 11011111 11010101 01110101 01111111 01011101 11110101 01011101 01011101 11011111 01111111 01111101 11110111 11011111 1111111 01010111 1111011 11110101 11011111 11111101 11110101 11011 10010111 1111101 10110111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,162
Words 246
Sentences 22
Stanzas 7
Stanza Lengths 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5
Lines Amount 35
Letters per line (avg) 25
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 125
Words per stanza (avg) 34
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:12 min read
51

Robert William Service

Robert William Service was a poet and writer sometimes referred to as the Bard of the Yukon He is best-known for his writings on the Canadian North including the poems The Shooting of Dan McGrew The Law of the Yukon and The Cremation of Sam McGee His writing was so expressive that his readers took him for a hard-bitten old Klondike prospector not the later-arriving bank clerk he actually was Robert William Service was born 16 January 1874 in Preston England but also lived in Scotland before emigrating to Canada in 1894 Service went to the Yukon Territory in 1904 as a bank clerk and became famous for his poems about this region which are mostly in his first two books of poetry He wrote quite a bit of prose as well and worked as a reporter for some time but those writings are not nearly as well known as his poems He travelled around the world quite a bit and narrowly escaped from France at the beginning of the Second World War during which time he lived in Hollywood California He died 11 September 1958 in France Incidentally he played himself in a movie called The Spoilers starring John Wayne and Marlene Dietrich more…

All Robert William Service poems | Robert William Service Books

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