Analysis of A Departing Dirge

Harry 'Breaker' Harbord Morant 1864 (Bridgwater, Somerset) – 1902 (Pretoria)



Girls in town and boys out back,
I've rolled up my little pack,
And on june's chill wintry gales
Sail from pleasant New South Wales.
Ere I go - a doggerel song
To bid the whole caboose 'So-long!'

Saddle-gear and horses sold -
Fetched but scanty stock of gold -
Scanty!! yet the whole lot
Publicans and Flossies got.
Since I in this country landed
Ne'er before was I so 'stranded'.

Now I'm leaving Sydney's shore
Harder up than e'er before;
A keen appetite I feel
To taste a bit o' British veal;
And let's trust, across the foam
They have a fatted calf at home.

From duns and debts (once safe on board)
Pray deliver me, oh Lord!
Here's the burden of my song:
'Good-bye, old girl!  Old chap, So-long!'
Hardest loss of all I find
To leave the good old horse behind.
So-long, 'Cavalier!'


Scheme AABBCC DDEEFF GGHHII JJCCKKX
Poetic Form
Metre 1010111 1111101 0111101 1110111 11101001 11010111 1010101 1110111 101011 1011 11011010 10111110 1110101 10111001 011011 11011101 0110101 1101111 11011111 1010111 1010111 11111111 1011111 11011101 1101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 767
Words 151
Sentences 12
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6, 7
Lines Amount 25
Letters per line (avg) 24
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 147
Words per stanza (avg) 37
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 29, 2023

46 sec read
67

Harry 'Breaker' Harbord Morant

Harry "Breaker" Harbord Morant (born Edwin Henry Murrant, 9 December 1864 – 27 February 1902) was an Anglo-Australian drover, horseman, bush poet and military officer, who was convicted and executed for murder during the Second Anglo-Boer War. While serving with the Bushveldt Carbineers during the Second Anglo-Boer War, Lieutenant Morant was arrested and court-martialed for war crimes—one of the first such prosecutions in British military history. According to military prosecutors, Morant retaliated for the death in combat of his commanding officer with a series of revenge killings against both Boer POWs and many civilian residents of the Northern Transvaal. more…

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