The Passing of the Year Analysis

Welcome to the land of symbols, imagery, and wordplay. Before you travel any further, please know that there may be some thorny academic terminology ahead. Never fear, Shmoop is here. Check out our...

Rhymed Iambic TetrameterSometimes poets like to mess around with the rhyme or the rhythm of their poems. We here at Shmoop thinks that's cool, but sometimes you can really wear yourself out trying...

We imagine the speaker of this poem as a kind of melodramatic actor. We can just see this guy – a little tubby, maybe a goatee, some heavy stage makeup, knee-pants, and a ruffly shirt. He's a re...

Ever been to see The Phantom of the Opera? If so, you'll know exactly what we're talking about when we say that we imagine this poem taking place in a big old cavern of a theater, filled with cobw...

Snare Drum and CelloWe hear two sounds running through this poem, two rhythms, two tones that intermingle and reinforce each other. We picked musical instruments to capture the spirit of each, but...

Well, Robert Service is a pretty straightforward guy, and here he basically just tells us what this poem is about: the end of a year. Still, that's important. The title sets our expectations for...

Fun, Friendly Poems for the Whole FamilyRobert Service wrote poems for people everywhere to love, memorize, treasure, and pass onto their kids. This isn't poetry to twist your brain into knots or...

(2) Sea LevelThere are some quick shifts in this poem, and it can be a little hard to figure out the slightly wacky central metaphor. With a little hand up from Shmoop, though, we think this shoul...

An apple variety was named after Robert Service in 1908, but apparently it was lousy. Can't really blame him for that, though, can we? (source)Robert Service wrote 45 books of poetry.  45! (s...

GSorry folks. Nothing steamy here at all – not even a glimmer.