Analysis of Expectation
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
My flask of wine was ruby red
And swift I ran my sweet to see;
With eyes that snapped delight I said:
"How mad with love a lad can be!"
The moon was laughing overhead;
I danced as nimbly as a flea.
Thought I: In two weeks time we'll wed;
No more a lonesome widow she;
For I have bought a double bed
And I will father children three.
So singing like a lark I sped
To her who ne'er expected me.
And then I went with wary tread,
Her sweet surprise to greet with glee;
To where her lamplit lattice shed
A rosy radiance on the lea:
. . . And then my heart sank low like lead,
Two shadows on the blind to see.
A man was sitting on the bed,
And she was nudely on his knee. . . .
I saw her face drain white with dread,
I saw her lover madly flee. . . .
Oh how her blood is ruby red,
And I await the gallows tree
Scheme | ABABAB ABABAB ABABAB ABABAB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11111101 01111111 11110111 11110111 01110101 11110101 11011111 11010101 11110101 01110101 11010111 10110101 01111101 01011111 1101101 010100101 01111111 1110111 01110101 0111111 11011111 11010101 11011101 01010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 788 |
Words | 167 |
Sentences | 17 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 150 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 43 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 14, 2023
- 50 sec read
- 121 Views
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"Expectation" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 6 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/32105/expectation>.
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