Analysis of The Mob

Ada Cambridge 1844 (St Germans, Norfolk) – 1926 (Melbourne)



Why stand dumbfounded and aghast,
As at invading armies sweeping by,
Surprised by haggard face and threatening cry,
The storm unheralded, that rose so fast?
Men, with gaunt wives and hungry children, cast
Upon the wintry streets to thieve or die,
They cannot always suffer silently;
Patience gives out. The poor worm turns at last.

And no ear listens to the warning call.
No eye awakes to see the portent dread.
Must brute force reign and social order fall
Ere these starved millions can be clothed and fed?
A strange phenomenon, this, unconcern -
To live so fast and be so slow to learn!


Scheme ABBAABXA CDCDEE
Poetic Form
Metre 11100001 1101010101 01110101001 0101001111 1111010101 0101011111 110110100 1011011111 0111010101 111110101 1111010101 1111011101 01010101 1111011111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 583
Words 106
Sentences 8
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 8, 6
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 33
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 234
Words per stanza (avg) 52
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

31 sec read
56

Ada Cambridge

Ada Cambridge, later known as Ada Cross, was an English-born Australian writer. She wrote more than 25 works of fiction, three volumes of poetry and two autobiographical works. Many of her novels were serialised in Australian newspapers but never published in book form. While she was known to friends and family by her married name, Ada Cross, her newspaper readers knew her as A. C.. She later reverted to her maiden name, Ada Cambridge, and that is how she is known today.  more…

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