Analysis of Mike
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
My lead dog Mike was like a bear;
I reckon he was grizzly bred,
For when he reared up in the air
Ho over-topped me by a head.
He'd cuff me with his hefty paws,
Jest like a puppy actin' cute,
And I would swear: by Gosh! he was
The world's most mighty malemute.
But oh the grub that dog could eat!
Yet he was never belly-tight;
It almost broke me buying meat
To satisfy his appetite.
Then came a change I wondered at:
Returning when the dawn was dim,
He seemed mysteriously fat,
And scorned the bones I'd saved for him.
My shack was near the hospital,
Wherein there laboured Nurse Louise,
Who was to me a little pal
I planned in every way to please.
As books and sweets for her I bought,
My mug she seemed to kindo' like;
But Mike - he loved her quite a lot,
And she was very fond of Mike.
Strolling with her as moonlight gleamed,
I saw a strand of cotton trail
From Mike, the which unseemly seemed
To have its source behind his tail.
I trod on it with chagrin grim,
And with a kick his absence urged;
But as he ran, from out of him
Such yards and yards of lint emerged.
And then on me the truth did dawn
Beyond the shadow of a doubt:
That poor dam dog was gorged upon
The poultices threw out. . . .
So "love my dog love me," I thought,
And seized the moment to propose . . .
Mike's dead, but in our garden lot
He's manure for a big dog-rose.
Scheme | ABABXXXB CDCDEFEF XGXGHIHI JKJKFLFL XMXMXNHN |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (33%) |
Metre | 11111101 11011101 11111001 11011101 11111101 11010101 01111111 011101 11011111 11110101 1111101 110110 11011101 01010111 1110001 01011111 1111010 0111101 11110101 110100111 11011011 1111111 11110101 01110111 1010111 11011101 11010101 11110111 11111011 01011101 11111111 11011101 01110111 0101101 11111101 010011 11111111 01010101 111010101 10110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,309 |
Words | 268 |
Sentences | 19 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 203 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 54 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 14, 2023
- 1:21 min read
- 117 Views
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"Mike" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 6 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/32247/mike>.
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