Analysis of Alias Bill
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
We bore him to his boneyard lot
One afternoon at three;
The clergyman was on the spot
To earn his modest fee.
We sprinkled on his coffin ld
The customary loam,
And so old Bill was snugly slid
To his last home.
A lonesome celebate we thought,
For close as clam was he;
We never guessed that he had got
A lawful family,
Till lo! we saw a gorgeous wreath
Reposing on his bier,
With on a scarlet scroll beneath:
"To Father Dear."
He ordered it hisself, they said,
Before he had to go.
His folks don't know that he is dead -
Maybe they'll never know.
His step was frail, his hair was grey,
But though his sight was dim,
He liked to kid hisself that they
Still thought of him.
Maybe they did: we never knew,
And he would never tell;
Perhaps their hearts were broken too -
His was, I think . . . Ah well,
We left him in the boneyard lot
With none to shed a tear,
And just a wreath, the one he bought:
"To Father Dear."
Scheme | ababacxc xbabdxdE fgfghihi jkjkaxa E |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111111 10111 01001101 111101 11011101 01001 01111101 1111 01010011 111111 11011111 010100 11110101 1111 11010101 1101 1101111 011111 11111111 101101 11111111 111111 1111111 1111 10111101 011101 01110101 111111 1110011 111101 01010111 1101 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,000 |
Words | 184 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 7, 1 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 138 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 37 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 55 sec read
- 82 Views
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"Alias Bill" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/31974/alias-bill>.
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