Analysis of Lowly Laureate
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
O Sacred Muse, my lyre excuse! -
My verse is vagrant singing;
Rhyme I invoke for simple folk
Of penny-wise upbringing:
For Grannies grey to paste away
Within an album cover;
For maids in class to primly pass,
And lads to linger over.
I take the clay of every day
And mould it in my fashion;
I seek to trace the commonplace
With humor and compassion.
Of earth am I, and meekly try
To be supremely human:
To please, I plan, the little man,
And win the little women.
No evil theme shall daunt my dream
Of fellow-love and pity;
I tune my lute to prostitute,
To priest I pipe my ditty.
Through gutter-grime be in my rhyme,
I bow to altars holy. . . .
Lord, humble me, so I may be
A Laureate of the Lowly.
Scheme | XAXABCXC BDXDXDXD XEXEXEEE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11011101 1111010 11011101 110110 11011101 0111010 11011101 0111010 110111001 0110110 1111010 1100010 11110101 11010010 11110101 0101010 11011111 1101010 1111110 1111110 11011011 1111010 11011111 01001010 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 684 |
Words | 137 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 177 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 46 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 41 sec read
- 59 Views
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