Analysis of Teddy Bear
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
O Teddy Bear! with your head awry
And your comical twisted smile,
You rub your eyes -- do you wonder why
You've slept such a long, long while?
As you lay so still in the cupboard dim,
And you heard on the roof the rain,
Were you thinking . . . what has become of him?
And when will he play again?
Do you sometimes long for a chubby hand,
And a voice so sweetly shrill?
O Teddy Bear! don't you understand
Why the house is awf'ly still?
You sit with your muzzle propped on your paws,
And your whimsical face askew.
Don't wait, don't wait for your friend . . . because
He's sleeping and dreaming too.
Aye, sleeping long. . . . You remember how
He stabbed our hearts with his cries?
And oh, the dew of pain on his brow,
And the deeps of pain in his eyes!
And, Teddy Bear! you remember, too,
As he sighed and sank to his rest,
How all of a sudden he smiled to you,
And he clutched you close to his breast.
I'll put you away, little Teddy Bear,
In the cupboard far from my sight;
Maybe he'll come and he'll kiss you there,
A wee white ghost in the night.
But me, I'll live with my love and pain
A weariful lifetime through;
And my Hope: will I see him again, again?
Ah, God! If I only knew!
Scheme | ABABCDCE FGFGHIHI JKJKILIL MNMNDIEI |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110111101 01100101 111111101 1110111 1111100101 01110101 0110110111 0111101 1101110101 0011101 11011101 101111 1111101111 01100101 111111101 1100101 110110101 11101111 010111111 00111011 010110101 11101111 1110101111 01111111 1110110101 00101111 101101111 0111001 111111101 0111 01111110101 1111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,161 |
Words | 232 |
Sentences | 28 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 221 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 60 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 02, 2023
- 1:12 min read
- 125 Views
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"Teddy Bear" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 25 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/32465/teddy-bear>.
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