Analysis of Florentine Pilgrim
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
"I'll do the old dump in a day,"
He told me in his brittle way.
"Two more, I guess, I'll give to Rome
Before I hit the trail for home;
But while I'm there I kindo' hope
To have an audience with the Pope."
We stood upon the terraced height
With sunny Florence in our sight.
I gazed and gazed, too moved to speak
Until he queried: "What's that creek?"
"The Arno, sir," I said surprised;
He stared at it with empty eyes.
"It is," said I, "the storied stream
Where Dante used to pace and dream,
And wait for Beatrice to pass."
(Oh how I felt a silly ass
Explaining this.) With eyes remote
He asked: "Was Beatrice a boat?"
Then tranced by far Fiesole
Softly I sought to steal away;
But his adhesiveness was grim,
I could not pry apart from him:
And so in our hotel-ward walk
Meekly I listened to his talk.
"Bologna! Say, the lunch was swell;
Them wops know how to feed you well.
Verona! There I met a blonde"
Oh how that baby could respond!
Siena! That's the old burg where
We soused on Asti in the square.
"Antiquity! Why, that's the bunk -
Statues and all that mouldy junk
Will never get you anywhere . . .
My line is ladies' underware,
And better than a dozen Dantes
Is something cute in female scanties. . . .
"One day in Florence is too small
You think, maybe, to see it all.
Well, it don't matter what you've seen -
The thing is: you can say you've been."
Scheme | AABBCC DDEEXF GGHHII JAKKLL JJMMNN OONNFF JJXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (33%) Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 11011001 11101101 11111111 01110111 1111111 111100101 11010101 110100101 11011111 01110111 01011101 11111101 11110101 11011101 01110011 11110101 01011101 11110001 11111 10111101 11111 11110111 010100111 10110111 01010111 11111111 01011101 11110101 110111 1111001 01001101 1011101 1101110 111101 01010101 1101011 11010111 11101111 11110111 01111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,325 |
Words | 270 |
Sentences | 26 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 4 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 144 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 38 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:21 min read
- 66 Views
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"Florentine Pilgrim" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 26 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/32126/florentine-pilgrim>.
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