Analysis of My Twins
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
Of twin daughters I'm the mother -
Lord! how I was proud of them;
Each the image of the other,
Like two lilies on one stem;
But while May, my first-born daughter,
Was angelic from the first,
Different as wine and water,
Maude, my second, seemed accurst.
I'm a tender-hearted dame,
Military is my bent;
Thus my pretty dears can claim
For their Pa the Regiment.
As they say: to err is human;
But though lots of love I've had,
I'm an ordinary women,
Just as good as I am bad.
Good and bad should find their level,
So I often wonder why
May was angel, Maude was devil,
Yet between the two was I.
May, they say, has taken vows -
Sister Mary, pure and sweet;
Maudie's in a bawdy house,
Down in Mariposa Street.
It's not natural I'm thinking,
One should pray, the other curse;
I'm so worried I am drinking,
Which is making matters worse.
Yet my daughters love each other,
And I love them equal well;
Saint and sinner call me mother . . .
Ain't heredity just hell?
Scheme | ABABACAC DXDXEFEF GHGHXIXI JKJKALAL |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11101010 1111111 10101010 1110111 11111110 110101 10011010 111011 1010101 100111 1110111 1110100 11111110 1111111 1110010 1111111 10111110 1110101 11101110 1010111 1111101 1010101 100101 100101 11100110 1110101 11101110 1110101 11101110 0111101 10101110 1010011 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 933 |
Words | 182 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 180 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 46 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 57 sec read
- 39 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"My Twins" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 6 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/32313/my-twins>.
Discuss this Robert William Service poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In