Analysis of A Pot Of Tea
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
You make it in your mess-tin by the brazier's rosy gleam;
You watch it cloud, then settle amber clear;
You lift it with your bay'nit, and you sniff the fragrant steam;
The very breath of it is ripe with cheer.
You're awful cold and dirty, and a-cursin' of your lot;
You scoff the blushin' 'alf of it, so rich and rippin' 'ot;
It bucks you up like anythink, just seems to touch the spot:
God bless the man that first discovered Tea!
Since I came out to fight in France, which ain't the other day,
I think I've drunk enough to float a barge;
All kinds of fancy foreign dope, from caffy and doo lay,
To rum they serves you out before a charge.
In back rooms of estaminays I've gurgled pints of cham;
I've swilled down mugs of cider till I've felt a bloomin' dam;
But 'struth! they all ain't in it with the vintage of Assam:
God bless the man that first invented Tea!
I think them lazy lumps o' gods wot kips on asphodel
Swigs nectar that's a flavour of Oolong;
I only wish them sons o' guns a-grillin' down in 'ell
Could 'ave their daily ration of Suchong.
Hurrah! I'm off to battle, which is 'ell and 'eaven too;
And if I don't give some poor bloke a sexton's job to do,
To-night, by Fritz's campfire, won't I 'ave a gorgeous brew
(For fightin' mustn't interfere with Tea).
To-night we'll all be tellin' of the Boches that we slew,
As we drink the giddy victory in Tea.
Scheme | ABABCXCD EFEFGGAD HIHIJJJDHD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1110111101101 1111110101 11111110110101 0101111111 1101010001111 110111111011 111111111101 1101110101 11111101110101 1111011101 1111010111011 1111110101 0111111111 1111110111011 1111101101011 1101110101 111101111111 110101110 1101111101101 111101011 0111110111011 0111111101111 1111101110101 11100111 1111111010111 11101010001 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,402 |
Words | 263 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 10 |
Lines Amount | 26 |
Letters per line (avg) | 40 |
Words per line (avg) | 10 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 344 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 87 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 10, 2023
- 1:24 min read
- 121 Views
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