Analysis of The 'Bulletin' Stairs
Edwin James Brady 1869 (Carcoar, New South Wales) – 1952 (Pambula, New South Wales)
The Mecca of Bohemian men
Was Archibald's untidy den.
Firm-footed near the portals there
Uprose, as now, a spacious stair
That carried nearer to the sky
Their inky hopes in days forebye.
This ladder to Parnassus, they
Expectant climbed - as still one may.
Oft-times upon its steps appeared
The wiry brush of Daley's beard,
Of Henry Lawson's drooped moustache
Would upward glide and downward dash.
Betimes - a gem his pocket in -
Meandered upward Ronald Quinn,
Or Bayldon bore a sonnet new,
Or Broomfield occupied the view
Insistent, in a manner vain,
On making passes with his cane.
These might encounter on the way
The 'Banjo' glum, or Hugh McCrae
Or Souter with a leering cat
Or Bedford in a Queensland hat;
And other penmen debonair
Familiar with that famous stair.
The Red Tressed Maiden, all aglow,
And Clancy of the Overflow
And Dad and Dave, in company
With Ginger Mick and Jock MacFee,
From time to time, in singles, pairs,
By hand or post went up those stairs!
Awaiting by McMahon's door
For silver, little, less, or more,
Met jesting genius to abuse
The landlords and the lending Jews.
Anon with cash in hand such drear
Considerations - drowned in beer -
Would pass as pass the clouds of morn;
And from their ready wits, reborn
As from a fount in Arcady,
Would flow fair dreams of Days-to-Be,
When, in this Southland, shore to shore,
Art was enthroned for evermore.
That noble vision yet I hold
More precious is than all the gold
That men have dug from southern earth.
In loyal hearts it had its birth;
In loyal minds it will become
A trumpet-note, a calling drum
To lead this nation onward, and
To glorify and grace the land.
And through that fellowship may ne'er,
As then it was, re-climb the Stair
Its voices echo down the years -
The voices of the pioneers!
Scheme | AABBXX CCDDEE FFGGHH CCIIBB JJKXLL MMXXBX NNDKMM OOPPQQ XXBBRR |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 010101001 110101 11010101 1110101 11010101 1101011 1101101 01011111 11011101 01011101 1101011 11010101 1011100 01010101 1110101 111001 01000101 11010111 11010101 0111101 1101011 1100011 010101 01011101 01110101 0101010 01010100 1101011 11110101 11111111 010111 11010111 1110101 0100101 1110111 0010101 11110111 01110111 110101 11111111 1011111 111110 11010111 11011101 11111101 01011111 01011101 01010101 11110100 1100101 0111011 11111101 11010101 0101001 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,726 |
Words | 320 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 54 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 154 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 35 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:37 min read
- 123 Views
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"The 'Bulletin' Stairs" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/10104/the-%27bulletin%27-stairs>.
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