Analysis of Leaves



The leaves are falling one and one,
         Each like a life to me,
As over-soonly in the sun
         They spiral goldenly:
So airily and warily
         They falter free.

The leaves are falling two and two,
         Beneath a baleful sky;
So silently the sward they strew,
         Reluctantly they die . . .
Rich crimson leaves,--and no one grieves
         There doom but I.

The leaves are falling three and three
         Beneath the mothlike moon;
They flutter downward silverly
         In muted rigadoon;
And russet dry remote they lie
         From feathered tune.

The leaves are lying numberless,
         Disconsolately dead;
Where lucent was their sylvan dress
         And lightsome was their tread,
They rot below the bitter snow,
         Uncomforted.

A leaf's a life, and one by one
         They drift each darkling day;
Rare friends who lusted in the sun
         Are frailing fast away . . .
How sadly soon will mourn the moon
         My dark decay!


Scheme ABACBB DEDEFE BGCACG FHXHXH AIAIGI
Poetic Form Etheree  (23%)
Tetractys  (20%)
Metre 01110101 110111 1101001 1101 110100 1101 01110101 010101 11000111 010011 11010111 1111 01110101 01011 110101 0101 01010111 1101 011101 11 11011101 01111 11010101 1 01010111 11111 11110001 11101 11011101 1101
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 959
Words 147
Sentences 12
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6, 6, 6
Lines Amount 30
Letters per line (avg) 22
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 131
Words per stanza (avg) 30
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

44 sec read
68

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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