Analysis of Bird Watcher
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
In Wall Street once a potent power,
And now a multi-millionaire
Alone within a shady bower
In clothes his valet would not wear,
He watches bird wings bright the air.
The man who mighty mergers planned,
And oil and coal kinglike controlled,
With field-glasses in failing hand
Spies downy nestlings five days old,
With joy he could not buy for gold.
Aye, even childlike is his glee;
But how he crisps with hate and dread
And shakes a clawlike fist to see
A kestrel hover overhead:
Though he would never shoot it dead.
Although his cook afar doth forage
For food to woo his appetite,
The old man lives on milk and porridge
And now it is his last delight
At eve if one lone linnet lingers
To pick crushed almonds from his fingers.
Scheme | ABABB CDCDD EFEFF XGXGHH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 011101010 0101001 010101010 01101111 11011101 01110101 0101101 11100101 11010111 11111111 1101111 11111101 0101111 0110101 11110111 11101110 1111110 011111010 01111101 111111010 111101110 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 759 |
Words | 136 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 5, 6 |
Lines Amount | 21 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 145 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 34 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 01, 2023
- 40 sec read
- 86 Views
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"Bird Watcher" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 6 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/32018/bird-watcher>.
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