Analysis of Village Virtue
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
Jenny was my first sweetheart;
Poor lass! she was none too smart.
Though I swore she'd never rue it,
She would never let me do it.
When I tried she mad a fuss,
So damn pure and virtuous.
Girls should cozen all they can,
Use their wiles to get their man.
June, my second, was no prude;
Too good-looking to be good;
Wanton and a giddy-gadder,
Never knew who might have had her;
Kept me mad and jumping jealous,
Tempting all the other fellows
Like a wayside flower to pluck her:
So at last I had to chuck her.
Now I'm settled down with Jill,
And we're safely married still.
She began to wail and worry,
So we wedded in a hurry.
Well, it's quite all right that way -
We're all made of common clay,
And the grey-haired folk that bore us
Just as wanton were before us.
June, I hear, now lives in London
Where, I fear, she's sadly undone.
Jenny, still as virtuous
Missed the matrimonial bus,
Where our "first" set gossips buzzin'
Jill and I now have a dozen,
Ready in their turn to prove
There's no chastity in love.
June, so fickle and so fair,
Common was as barber's chair;
Jill provides me with good grub,
Lets me go nights to the pub.
Though her silver hairs are many,
One eve I might call on Jenny . . .
She may not need too much urging:
Must be hell to die a virgin.
Scheme | AABBCCDD XXEECXEE FFEEGGCC HHCCDHXX EEIIJJXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (30%) |
Metre | 101111 1111111 11111011 11101111 1111101 1110100 111111 1111111 1110111 1110111 1000101 10111110 11101010 10101010 10110110 11111110 1110111 0110101 10111010 11100010 1111111 1111101 00111111 11100011 11111010 11111001 1011100 1001001 11011101 10111010 1001111 1110001 1110011 1011101 1011111 1111101 10101110 11111110 11111110 11111010 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,234 |
Words | 247 |
Sentences | 17 |
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) | 50 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:16 min read
- 69 Views
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