Analysis of Ripe Fruit
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
Through eyelet holes I watched the crowd
Rain of confetti fling;
Their joy is lush, their laughter loud,
For Carnival is King.
Behind his chariot I pace
To ean my petty pay;
They laugh to see my monster face:
"Ripe Fruit," I hear them say.
I do not laugh: my shoulders sag;
No heart have I for glee,
Because I hold aloft a hag
Who grins enough for me;
A hideous harridan who bears
In crapulous display,
Like two grub-eaten mouldy pears
Her bubbies on a tray.
Ripe Fruit! Oh, God! It's hell to think
How I have drifted down
Through vice and dice and dope and drink
To play the sordid clown;
That I who held the golden key
To operatic fame,
Should gnaw the crust of misery
And drain the dregs of shame.
What matter! I'll get soused to-night,
And happy I will be,
To sit within a tavern bright,
A trollop on my knee. . . .
So let the crazy pipers pipe,
And let the rapture ring:
Ripe fruit am I - yea, rotten ripe,
And Carnival is King.
Scheme | ABABCDCD EFEFGDGD HIHIFJFJ KFKFLBLB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11011101 110101 11111101 110011 01110011 111101 11111101 111111 11111101 111111 01110101 110111 0100111 0101 11110101 01101 11111111 111101 11010101 110101 11110101 10101 11011100 010111 11011111 010111 11010101 01111 11010101 010101 11111101 010011 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 911 |
Words | 183 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 178 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 46 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 55 sec read
- 58 Views
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"Ripe Fruit" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/32404/ripe-fruit>.
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