Analysis of The Barcoo
Henry Kendall 1839 (Australia) – 1882 (Sydney)
From the runs of the Narran, wide-dotted with sheep,
And loud with the lowing of cattle,
We speed for a land where the strange forests sleep
And the hidden creeks bubble and brattle!
Now call on the horses, and leave the blind courses
And sources of rivers that all of us know;
For, crossing the ridges, and passing the ledges,
And running up gorges, we'll come to the verges
Of gullies where waters eternally flow.
Oh! the herds they will rush down the spurs of the hill
To feed on the grasses so cool and so sweet;
And I think that my life with delight will stand still
When we halt with the pleasant Barcoo at our feet.
Good-bye to the Barwon, and brigalow scrubs,
Adieu to the Culgoa ranges,
But look for the mulga and salt-bitten shrubs,
Though the face of the forest-land changes.
The leagues we may travel down beds of hot gravel,
And clay-crusted reaches where moisture hath been,
While searching for waters, may vex us and thwart us,
Yet who would be quailing, or fainting, or failing?
Not you, who are men of the Narran, I ween!
When we leave the dry channels away to the south,
And reach the far plains we are journeying to,
We will cry, though our lips may be glued with the drouth,
Hip, hip, and hurrah for the pleasant Barcoo!
Scheme | ABABCDEEDFGFG CCXCBXXHDIXIH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 10110111011 011010110 11101101101 0010110010 111010010110 01011011111 110010010010 010110111010 11011001001 101111101101 11101011011 011111101111 111101011101 11101011 0110110 1110101101 1011010110 011110111110 01101011011 110110111011 11111110110 1111110111 111011001101 01011111001 1111101111101 1100110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,249 |
Words | 232 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 13, 13 |
Lines Amount | 26 |
Letters per line (avg) | 37 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 485 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 115 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:09 min read
- 63 Views
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