Analysis of Why Do Birds Sing?



Let poets piece prismatic words,
Give me the jewelled joy of birds!

What ecstasy moves them to sing?
Is it the lyric glee of Spring,
The dewy rapture of the rose?
Is it the worship born in those
Who are of Nature's self a part,
The adoration of the heart?

Is it the mating mood in them
That makes each crystal note a gem?
Oh mocking bird and nightingale,
Oh mavis, lark and robin - hail!
Tell me what perfect passion glows
In your inspired arpeggios?

A thrush is thrilling as I write
Its obligato of delight;
And in its fervour, as in mine,
I fathom tenderness divine,
And pity those of earthy ear
Who cannot hear . . . who cannot hear.

Let poets pattern pretty words:
For lovely largesse - bless you, Birds!


Scheme AA BBCCDD EEFFCA GGHHII AA
Poetic Form
Metre 11010101 1101111 11001111 11010111 01010101 11010101 11110101 0010101 11010101 11110101 11010100 11010101 11101101 010101 01110111 11101 0011101 11010001 01011101 11011101 11010101 11001111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 695
Words 134
Sentences 13
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 2, 6, 6, 6, 2
Lines Amount 22
Letters per line (avg) 25
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 110
Words per stanza (avg) 27
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 19, 2023

40 sec read
136

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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