Analysis of The Comforter
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
As I sat by my baby's bed
That's open to the sky,
There fluttered round and round my head
A radiant butterfly.
And as I wept -- of hearts that ache
The saddest in the land --
It left a lily for my sake,
And lighted on my hand.
I watched it, oh, so quietly,
And though it rose and flew,
As if it fain would comfort me
It came and came anew.
Now, where my darling lies at rest,
I do not dare to sigh,
For look! there gleams upon my breast
A snow-white butterfly.
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF GBGB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 11111101 110101 11010111 010010 01111111 010001 11010111 010111 11111100 011101 11111101 110101 11110111 111111 11110111 01110 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 453 |
Words | 98 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 16 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 86 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 24 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 30 sec read
- 74 Views
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"The Comforter" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 14 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/32519/the-comforter>.
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