The Hinterland
Robert William Service 1874 – 1958
You speak to me, but does your speech
With truest truth your thought convey?
I listen to your words and each
Is what I wait to hear you say.
The pattern that your lips reveal,
How does it measure with your mind?
What undertones do you conceal?
Your smile is sweet - but what's behind?
I speak to you, but do I tell
The secret working of my brain?
Frank honesty would make life hell,
And truth be tantamount to pain.
When deep into the mind one delves,
Appalling verities we view;
If we betrayed our inner selves,
Would you hate man and I hate you?
Are we not strangers each to each,
And all alone we live and die?
Deception is the stuff of speech,
And life a smug and glossy lie,
Where puppet-like our parts we play:
The first in public we rehearse,
The second when we shrink away
into our private universe.
The soul has its grim hinterland
'Twere better never to explore;
Dark jungles where obscenely planned
Prowl monsters of primaeval lore;
With primal fear our lives are fraught,
And cravenly we cower behind
The silences of secret thought,
The murky mazes of the Mind.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 19, 2023
- 1:00 min read
- 143 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABABCDCD EFEFGHGH AIAIBJBJ KLKLMDMD |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,050 |
Words | 201 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8 |
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"The Hinterland" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/32555/the-hinterland>.
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