Analysis of Kittens
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
A ray of sun strayed softly round,
For something to caress,
Until a resting place it found
Of joy and thankfulness;
'Twas Minette, our Angora cat,
With deep contented purr,
Relaxed in rapture on a mat,
Three kittens nuzzling her.
With tenderness the sunbeam kissed
her fur of silver-grey;
Her eyes held an ecstatic mist,
In boundless bliss she lay;
The sunny radiance seemed to hold
Her longer than it should,
As if it sought to shine in gold
Such mystic motherhood.
The darling kittens grew and grew;
Then one day Mother Cat,
Back from their gambolling withdrew,
And glared at them and - spat.
Aye, though they toddled after her
With playful stratagem,
Instead of soft maternal purr
She snarled and clawed at them.
And now she goes her callous way
And never gives them heed;
You barely would believe that they
Were children of her breed.
Upon the roof we see her creep
And howl with fiendish tone,
While on the hearth-rug softly sleep
Three kittens on their own.
And such is nature's way, it seems,
And maybe right at that;
So Mother, drop your foolish dreams
And emulate the Cat.
And when your offspring well are grown,
And strong and swift and tall,
Just turn them out upon their own
And let them fight - or fall.
Scheme | ABABCDCD EFEFGHGH ICICDXDX FJFJKLKL MCMCLNLN |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (30%) |
Metre | 01111101 110101 01010111 1101 101100101 110101 01010101 11010 1100011 011101 01110101 010111 010100111 010111 11111101 11010 01010101 111101 111101 011101 1111100 110100 01110101 1100111 01110101 010111 11010111 010101 01011101 011101 11011101 110111 01110111 010111 11011101 01001 0111111 010101 11110111 011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,185 |
Words | 222 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 192 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 44 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 19, 2023
- 1:06 min read
- 135 Views
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"Kittens" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 3 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/32206/kittens>.
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