Analysis of A Year Ago
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
I'm sitting by the fire tonight,
The cat purrs on the rug;
The room's abrim with rosy light,
Suavely soft and snug;
And safe and warm from dark and storm
It's cosiness I hug.
Then petulant the window pane
Quakes in the tempest moan,
And cries: "Forlornly in the rain
There starkly streams a stone,
Where one so dear who shared your cheer
Now lies alone, alone.
Go forth! Go forth into the gale
And pass and hour in prayer;
This night of sorrow do not fail
The one you deemed so fair,
The girl below the bitter snow
Who died your child to bear."
So wails the wind, yet here I sit
Beside the ember's glow;
My grog is hot, my pipe is lit,
And loth am I to go
To her who died a ten-month bride,
Only a year ago.
To-day we weep: each morrow is
A littling of regret;
The saddest part of sorrow is
That we in time forget . . .
Christ! Let me go to graveyard woe,--
Yea, I will sorrow yet.
Scheme | ABABXB CDCDXD EFEFGF HGHGXG IJIJGJ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (33%) |
Metre | 110101001 011101 0111101 1101 01011101 1111 11000101 100101 011001 110101 11111111 110101 11110101 0101001 11110111 011111 01010101 111111 11011111 01011 11111111 011111 10110111 100101 11111101 01101 01011101 110101 1111111 111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 988 |
Words | 179 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 30 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 133 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 36 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 54 sec read
- 56 Views
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"A Year Ago" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 3 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/31966/a-year-ago>.
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