Analysis of My Masterpiece
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
It's slim and trim and bound in blue;
Its leaves are crisp and edged with gold;
Its words are simple, stalwart too;
Its thoughts are tender, wise and bold.
Its pages scintillate with wit;
Its pathos clutches at my throat:
Oh, how I love each line of it!
That Little Book I Never Wrote.
In dreams I see it praised and prized
By all, from plowman unto peer;
It's pencil-marked and memorized,
It's loaned (and not returned, I fear);
It's worn and torn and travel-tossed,
And even dusky natives quote
That classic that the world has lost,
The Little Book I Never Wrote.
Poor ghost! For homes you've failed to cheer,
For grieving hearts uncomforted,
Don't haunt me now. . . . Alas! I fear
The fire of Inspiration's dead.
A humdrum way I go to-night,
From all I hoped and dreamed remote:
Too late . . . a better man must write
That Little Book I Never Wrote.
Scheme | ababcdcD efefgdgd fbfxhdhD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11010101 11110111 11110101 11110101 110111 11010111 11111111 11011101 01111101 11110101 1101010 11010111 11010101 0101101 11010111 01011101 11111111 11011 11110111 010111 0111111 11110101 11010111 11011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 837 |
Words | 155 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 216 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 53 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 22, 2023
- 48 sec read
- 102 Views
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"My Masterpiece" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 14 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/32299/my-masterpiece>.
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