Analysis of You Can't Can Love
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
I don't know how the fishes feel, but I can't help thinking it odd,
That a gay young flapper of a female eel should fall in love with a cod.
Yet - that's exactly what she did and it only goes to prove,
That' what evr you do you can't put the lid on that crazy feeling Love.
Now that young tom-cod was a dreadful rake, and he had no wish to wed,
But he feared that her foolish heart would break, so this is what he said:
"Some fellows prize a woman's eyes, and some admire her lips,
While some have a taste for a tiny waist, but - me, what I like is HIPS."
"So you see, my dear," said that gay tom-cod, "Exactly how I feel;
Oh I hate to be unkind but I know my mind, and there ain't no hips on an eel."
"Alas! that's true," said the foolish fish, as she blushed to her finny tips:
"And with might and main, though it gives me pain, I'll try to develop hips."
So day and night with all her might she physical culturized;
But alas and alack, in the middle of her back no hump she recognized.
So - then she knew that her love eclipse was fated from the start;
For you never yet saw an eel with hips, so she died of a broken heart.
Chorus:
Oh you've gotta hand it out to Love, to Love you can't can Love
You'll find it from the bottom of the briny deep to the blue above.
From the Belgin hare to the Polar Bear, and the turtle dove,
You can look where you please, But from elephant to fleas,
You'll never put the lid on Love.
You can look where you choose, But from crabs to kangaroos,
You'll never put the lid on Love.
You can look where you like, But from polywogs to pike,
You'll never put the lid on Love.
You can look where you please, But from buffalo to bees,
You'll never put the lid on Love.
Scheme | aaxb ccdd eedd axff xbbbgB xB xB gB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111010111111011 10111010111101101 110101110110111 11111111011110101 11111101010111111 1111010111111111 11010101010101 11101101011111111 1111111111010111 11111011111101111111 0111101011111011 01101111111110101 1101110111001 10101001010111110 111110101110101 111011111111110101 10 111011111111111 1111010101110101 10111010100101 1111111110011 11010111 111111111101 11010111 11111111111 11010111 111111111011 11010111 |
Closest metre | Iambic heptameter |
Characters | 1,780 |
Words | 352 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 6, 2, 2, 2 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 45 |
Words per line (avg) | 12 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 159 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 43 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:48 min read
- 69 Views
Citation
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"You Can't Can Love" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 14 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/32765/you-can%27t-can-love>.
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