Analysis of A Christ-child Day in Australia
Ethel Turner 1870 (Doncaster) – 1958 (Mosman)
A COPPER concave of a sky
Hangs high above my head.
Vague thunder sullenly goes by
With dragging, muffled tread.
The hot air faints upon the grass,
And at its bitter breath,
Ten thousand trembling flower-souls pass,
With fragrant sighs, to death.
There comes no breeze. No breeze has sprung
And sweetly blown for days.
Dead air in silent sheets has hung,
Smooth wavering sheets of haze.
The very birds that erstwhile soared
Hide hushed in haunts of trees.
Nature no longer walks abroad,
But crouches on her knees.
Crouches and hides her withered face,
Above her barren breast,
And I forget her yester grace
And the clustering mouths she blessed.
’Tis in no alien land I sit,
Almost it is mine own.
Its fibres to my fibres knit,
Its bone into my bone.
These are no alien skies I know,
Yet something in my blood
Calls sharp for breath of ice and snow
Across the wide, salt flood.
Calls loud and will not be denied,
Cries, with imperious tears,
And mem’ries that have never died
Leap wildly o’er the years:
The thrill of England’s winter days,
Of England’s frost-sharp air,
The ice along her waterways,
Her snowfields stretching fair,
Her snowfields gleaming through the dark,
Her bird with breast aglow,
On the white land a crimson mark,
—Ah England, England’s snow!
Fair as a queen, this far south land,
A wayward bride, half won,
Her dowry careless flung like sand,
Her royal flax unspun.
And if beneath her ardent glance
Her subjects faint and reel,
Does she but melt, stoop to entrance,
They kiss her hem and kneel.
And I—I kneel. For oft her hand
Has gently touched my hair.
Then with a throb I rise and stand,
—A Queen!—why should she spare!
Yet when the Christ-Child mem’ries steal,
Some ebb-tide swells to flood.
Ah, England—just once more to feel
Thy winter in my blood
Scheme | ABAB CDCD EFEF XGXG HIHI JKJK LMLM NXNX FOFO PLPL QXQK XRXR QOQO RMRM |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (93%) |
Metre | 01001101 110111 110111 110101 01110101 011101 1101001011 110111 11111111 010111 11010111 1100111 0101111 110111 10110101 11101 1010101 010101 0101011 00100111 101100111 11111 111111 110111 111100111 110011 11111101 010111 11011101 1101001 0111101 110101 01110101 110111 0101010 01101 0110101 011101 10110101 110101 11011111 010111 01010111 01011 01010101 010101 11111110 110101 01111101 110111 11011101 011111 1101111 111111 11011111 110011 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,060 |
Words | 319 |
Sentences | 21 |
Stanzas | 14 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 56 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 99 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 23 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:35 min read
- 126 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"A Christ-child Day in Australia" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/12864/a-christ-child-day-in-australia>.
Discuss this Ethel Turner poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In