Analysis of Work And Joy



Each day I live I thank the Lord
          I do the work I love;
And in it find a rich reward,
          All price and praise above.
For few may do the work they love,
          The fond unique employ,
That fits them as a hand a glove,
          And gives them joy.

Oh gentlefolk, do you and you
          Who toil for daily hire,
Consider that the job you do
          Is to your heart's desire?
Aye, though you are to it resigned,
          And will no duty shirk,
Oh do you in your private mind
          Adore your work?

Twice happy man whose job is joy,
          Whose hand and heart combine,
In brave and excellent employ
          As radiantly as mine!
But oh the weary, dreary day,
          The wear and tear and irk
Of countless souls who cannot say:
          'I love my work.'


Scheme ABABBCBC DEDEFGFG CHCHIGIG
Poetic Form
Metre 11111101 110111 00110101 110101 11110111 010101 11110101 0111 111101 1111010 01010111 1111010 11111101 011101 11101101 0111 11011111 110110 01010001 1111 11010101 010101 11011101 1111
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 774
Words 140
Sentences 7
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 21
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 170
Words per stanza (avg) 46
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

42 sec read
111

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…

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