Analysis of Dram-Shop Ditty
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
I drink my fill of foamy ale
I sing a song, I tell a tale,
I play the fiddle;
My throat is chronically dry,
Yet savant of a sort am I,
And Life's my riddle.
For look! I raise my arm to drink-
A voluntary act, you think
(Nay, Sir, you're grinning)>
You're wrong: this stein of beer I've drained
to emptiness was pre-ordained
Since Time's beginning.
But stay! 'Tis I who err, because
Time has no birth; it always was,
It will be ever;
And trivial though my act appears,
Its repercussion down the years
Will perish never.
It will condition ages hence,
but its most urgent consequence,
You'll not deny, Sir,
Is that it should be filled again
To goad my philosophic brain,
If you will buy, Sir.
There is no great, there is no small;
Fate makes a tapestry of all,
each stitch is needed . . .
The gods be praised! that barman chap
Manipulates his frothing tap -
My plea is heeded.
Two foaming tankards over-spill,
And soon, ah! not too soon, they will
Our thirst be slaking.
Stout lad! he does not dream that he
A page of history maybe
Is blandly making.
For Sir, it was ordained that you
Buy me a drink (or maybe two)
Since ages hoary;
And doubtless it is predestined
our meeting shall affect in kind
Earth's Cosmic Story.
The fathomless, eternal Past,
The Future infinitely vast,
We two are linking;
So let us fitly celebrate
This moment of immortal Fate
In drinking, drinking.
But though I toss a hearty pot,
Kind stranger, do not think I'm not
For Truth a groper . . .
Another? Thanks, I won't refuse,
I am a tippler, if you choose,
But not a toper.
A nice distinction! . . . Well, life's good;
Just give me beer, rich greasy food,
And let me fiddle;
Enough of dull philosophy;
To-night we'll merry, merry be . . .
Hi-diddle-diddle.
Scheme | AABCCB DDEFFE XXGHHG XXGXXG IIJKKJ LLDMME NNMXXM OOEPPE QQCRRC XXBMMA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (32%) Tetractys (23%) |
Metre | 11111101 11011101 11010 11110001 10110111 01110 11111111 01000111 11110 11111111 11001101 11010 11111101 1111111 11110 010011101 1010101 11010 11010101 11110100 11011 11111101 1110101 11111 11111111 11010011 11110 01111101 010111 11110 1101101 01111111 10111 11111111 01110010 11010 11110111 11011101 11010 0101110 101010101 11010 010101 01010001 11110 111110 11010101 01010 11110101 11011111 1101 01011101 1101111 1101 01010111 11111101 01110 01110100 11110101 111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,678 |
Words | 315 |
Sentences | 31 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 60 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 131 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 33 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:37 min read
- 121 Views
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"Dram-Shop Ditty" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/32084/dram-shop-ditty>.
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