Analysis of The Thinker
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
Of all the men I ever knew
The tinkingest was Uncle Jim;
If there were any chores to do
We couldn't figure much on him.
He'd have a thinking job on hand,
And on the rocking-chair he'd sit,
And think and think to beat the band,
And snap his galusus and spit.
We kids regarded him with awe -
His beard browned by tobacco stains,
His hayseed had of faded straw
The covered such a bunch of brains.
When some big problem claimed his mind
He'd wrestle with it for a fall;
But some solution he would find,
To be on hand for supper call.
A mute, inglorious Einstein he,
A rocking-chair philosopher;
I often wondered what, maybe,
His mighty meditations were.
No weighty work he left behind,
No words of wisdom or of wit;
Yet how I see him in my mind
Snap on his galusus and spit.
Scheme | ABABCDCD XEXEFGFG HIHIFDFD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11011101 011101 11010111 11010111 11010111 01010111 01011101 011101 11010111 1111011 1111101 01010111 11110111 11011101 11010111 11111101 010100101 01010100 11010110 1100100 11011101 11110111 11111011 111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 755 |
Words | 151 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 198 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 50 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 46 sec read
- 104 Views
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"The Thinker" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 5 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/32663/the-thinker>.
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