Analysis of Four-Foot Shelf
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
'Come, see,' said he, 'my four-foot shelf,
A forty volume row;
And every one I wrote myself,
But that, of course, you know.'
I stared, I searched a memory dim,
For though an author too,
Somehow I'd never heard of him,--
None of his books I knew.
Said I: 'I'd like to borrow one,
Fond memories to recall.'
Said he: 'I'll gladly give you some,
And autograph them all.'
And so a dozen books he brought,
And signed tome after tome:
Of course I thanked him quite a lot,
And took them home.
So now I have to read his work,
Though dry as dust it be;
No portion of it may I shirk,
Lest he should question me.
This tale is true,--although it looks
To me a bloody shame,
A guy could father forty books,
yet no one know his name.
Scheme | ABABCDCD XEXEXFXF GHGHIJIJ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11111111 010101 01001111 111111 111101001 111101 1110111 111111 1111111 110011 11110111 01011 01010111 011101 11111101 0111 11111111 111111 11011111 111101 1111111 110101 01110101 111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 823 |
Words | 150 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
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
- 44 sec read
- 100 Views
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"Four-Foot Shelf" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 23 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/32134/four-foot-shelf>.
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