Analysis of Patches
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
Mother focused with a frown
The part of me where I sit down.
Said she: "Your pants are wearing through;
Let me sew on a patch for you."
And so she did,--of azure blue.
My britches were of sober grey,
And when I went to school next day,
The fellows said: "Excuse our smile:
We saw your patch 'way off a mile."
Said I: "Sure, it's the latest style."
So each boy asked his Ma to match
With bluer blue my super-patch,
And when to school they came en masse,
It was the emblem of our class,
Admired by every bonnie lass.
Now when I'm old and in my dotage,
I hope I'll have a humble cottage,
And sit me by a hive of bees,
A patchwork quilt accross my knees,
Warming my worn hands in the sun,
All ropey with the work they've done.
The work they've done to give me this
Brief bit of comfort, ease and bliss;
My pathway edged with cockle shells,
And bright with Canterbury bells,
That leads to where my humble thatch is,
It, too, adorned with straw-bright patches.
Scheme | AABBBCCDDD EEFFF GGHHII JJKKXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1010101 01111111 11111101 11110111 01111101 11001101 01111111 010101101 11111101 11110101 11111111 11011101 01111111 110101101 0101100101 11110011 111101010 01110111 011111 10111001 1110111 01111111 11110101 1111101 0111001 111111011 110111110 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 936 |
Words | 191 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 10, 5, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 27 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 181 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 46 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 57 sec read
- 52 Views
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"Patches" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 3 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/32354/patches>.
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