Analysis of The Buyers



Father drank himself to death,--
          Quite enjoyed it.
Urged to draw a sober breath
          He'd avoid it.
'Save your sympathy,' said Dad;
          'Never sought it.
Hob-nail liver, gay and glad,
          Sure,--I bought it.'

Uncle made a heap of dough,
          Ponies playing.
'Easy come and easy go,'
          Was his saying.
Though he died in poverty
          Fit he thought it,
Grinning with philosophy:
          'Guess I bought it.'

Auntie took the way of sin,
          Seeking pleasure;
Lovers came, her heart to win,
          Bringing treasure.
Sickness smote,--with lips that bled
          Brave she fought it;
Smiling on her dying bed:
          'Dears, I bought it.'

My decades of life are run,
          Eight precisely;
Yet I've lost a lot of fun
          Living wisely.
Too much piety don't pay,
          Time has taught it;
Hadn't guts to go astray;
Life's a bloody bore today,--
          Well, I've bought it.


Scheme ABABCBCB DEDEFBFB GHGHIBIB JFJFKBKKB
Poetic Form
Metre 1010111 1011 1110101 1011 1110011 1011 1110101 1111 1010111 1010 1010101 1110 1110100 1111 1010100 1111 1010111 1010 1010111 1010 1011111 1111 1010101 1111 1011111 1010 1110111 1010 1110011 1111 1011101 1010101 1111
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 921
Words 150
Sentences 12
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8, 9
Lines Amount 33
Letters per line (avg) 18
Words per line (avg) 4
Letters per stanza (avg) 147
Words per stanza (avg) 35
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

45 sec read
39

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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