Analysis of Bindle Stiff
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
When I was brash and gallant-gay
Just fifty years ago,
I hit the ties and beat my way
From Maine to Mexico;
For though to Glasgow gutter bred
A hobo heart had I,
And followed where adventure led,
Beneath a brazen sky.
And as I tramped the railway track
I owned a single shirt;
Like canny Scot I bought it black
So's not to show the dirt;
A handkerchief held all my gear,
My razor and my comb;
I was a freckless lad, I fear,
With all the world for home.
Yet oh I thought the life was grand
And loved my liberty!
Romance was my bed-fellow and
The stars my company.
And I would think, each diamond dawn,
"How I have forged my fate!
Where are the Gorbals and the Tron,
And where the Gallowgate?"
Oh daft was I to wander wild,
And seek the Trouble Trail,
As weakly as a wayward child,
And darkly doomed to fail . . .
Aye, bindle-stiff I hit the track
Just fifty years ago . . .
Yet now . . . I drive my Cadillac
From Maine to Mexico.
Scheme | aBaBcdcd efefghgh xixixxxc jkjkeBeB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11110101 110101 11010111 11110 1111101 010111 01010101 010101 0111011 110101 11011111 111101 01001111 110011 1101111 110111 11110111 011100 01111100 011100 01111101 111111 1101001 0101 11111101 010101 11010101 010111 11011101 110101 1111110 11110 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 905 |
Words | 182 |
Sentences | 17 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 176 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 47 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 54 sec read
- 135 Views
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