Analysis of Westward Ho!
Harry 'Breaker' Harbord Morant 1864 (Bridgwater, Somerset) – 1902 (Pretoria)
There's a damper in the ashes, tea and sugar in the bags,
There's whips of feed and shelter on the sandridge for the nags,
There's gidya wood about us and water close at hand,
And just one bottle left yet of the good Glenlivet brand.
There are chops upon the embers, which same are close-up done,
From as fine a four-tooth wether as there is on Crossbred's run;
'Twas a proverb on the Darling, the truth of which I hold:
"That mutton's aye the sweetest which was never bought nor sold."
Out of fifty thousand wethers surely Crossbred shouldn't miss
A sheep or so to travellers-faith, 'tis dainty mutton, this -
Let's drink a nip to Crossbred; ah, you drain it with a grin,
Then shove along the billy, mate, and, squatted, let's wade in.
The night's a trifle chilly, and the stars are very bright,
A heavy dew is falling, but the fly is rigged aright;
You may rest your bones till morning, then if you chance to wake,
Give me a call about the time that daylight starts to break.
We may not camp to-morrow, for we've many a mile to go,
Ere we turn our horses' heads round to make tracks for down below.
There's many a water-course to cross, and many a black-soil plain,
And many a mile of mulga ridge ere we get back again.
That time five moons shall wax and wane we'll finish up the work,
Have the bullocks o'er the border and truck 'em down from Bourke,
And when they're sold at Homebush, and the agents settle up,
Sing hey! a spell in Sydney town and Melbourne for the "Cup".
Scheme | AABB CCDD EEFF XBGG HHXX IIJJ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (83%) |
Metre | 101000101010001 1111010101101 111011010111 011101110111 11101010111111 1110111111111 10101010011111 1110101110111 1110101101101 011111001110101 1101111111101 1101010101110 01010100011101 0101110101111 11111110111111 1101010111111 111111011100111 1111010111111101 1100101110100111 01001111111101 11111101110101 101010010011111 0111110010101 11010101010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic heptameter |
Characters | 1,461 |
Words | 281 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 47 |
Words per line (avg) | 12 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 188 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 46 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
- 1:28 min read
- 63 Views
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"Westward Ho!" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2023. Web. 26 Mar. 2023. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/16981/westward-ho%21>.
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