Analysis of Old David Smail
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
He dreamed away his hours in school;
He sat with such an absent air,
The master reckoned him a fool,
And gave him up in dull despair.
When other lads were making hay
You'd find him loafing by the stream;
He'd take a book and slip away,
And just pretend to fish . . . and dream.
His brothers passed him in the race;
They climbed the hill and clutched the prize.
He did not seem to heed, his face
Was tranquil as the evening skies.
He lived apart, he spoke with few;
Abstractedly through life he went;
Oh, what he dreamed of no one knew,
And yet he seemed to be content.
I see him now, so old and gray,
His eyes with inward vision dim;
And though he faltered on the way,
Somehow I almost envied him.
At last beside his bed I stood:
"And is Life done so soon?" he sighed;
"It's been so rich, so full, so good,
I've loved it all . . ." -- and so he died.
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH CICI JKJK |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 110111001 11111101 01010101 01110101 11010101 1111101 11010101 01011101 11011001 11010101 11111111 11010101 11011111 11111 11111111 01111110 11111101 11110101 01110101 111101 11011111 01111111 11111111 11110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 835 |
Words | 172 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 105 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 29 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 11, 2023
- 52 sec read
- 209 Views
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"Old David Smail" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/32337/old-david-smail>.
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