Analysis of Surtax
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
When I was young and Scottish I
Allergic was to spending;
I put a heap of bawbees by,
But now my life is ending,
Although I would my hoarded pelf
Impetuously scatter,
Each day I live I find myself
Financially fatter.
Though all the market I might buy,
There's nothing to my needing;
I only have one bed to lie,
One mouth for feeding.
So what's the good of all that dough
Accumulating daily?
I should have spent it long ago
In living gaily.
So take my tip, my prudent friend,
Without misgiving;
Don't guard your fortune to the end,
But blow it living.
Better on bubbly be it spent,
And chorus cuties,
Than pay it to the Government
For damned Death Duties.
Scheme | ABABCDCD ABABEFEF GBGBXHXH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11110101 0101110 1101111 1111110 1111101 110 1111111 010010 11010111 1101110 11011111 11110 11011111 010010 11111101 01010 11111101 01010 11110101 11110 10110111 0101 11110100 11110 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 699 |
Words | 125 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 21 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 170 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 41 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 38 sec read
- 76 Views
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"Surtax" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 6 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/32460/surtax>.
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