Analysis of On the Summit of Mt. Clarence
Henry Lawson 1867 (Grenfell) – 1922 (Sydney)
On the summit of Mount Clarence rotting slowly in the air
Stands a tall and naked flagstaff, relic of the Russian scare—
Russian scare that scares no longer, for the cry is “All is well”—
Yet the flagstaff still is standing like a lonely sentinel.
And it watches through the seasons—winter’s cold and summer’s heat,
Watches seaward, watches ever for the phantom Russian fleet.
In a cave among the ridges, where the scrub is tall and thick
With no human being near him dwells a wretched lunatic:
On Mount Clarence in the morning he will fix his burning eyes,
And he scans the sea and watches for the signal flag to rise;
In his ears the roar of cannon and the sound of battle drums
While he cleans his gun and watches for the foe that never comes.
And they say, at dreary nightfall, when the storms are howling round
Comes a phantom ship to anchor in the waters of the “Sound”,
And the lunatic who sees it wakes the landscape with his whoops,
Loads his gun and marches seaward at the head of airy troops—
To the summit of Mount Clarence leads them on with martial tread,
Fires his gun and sends the Russians to the mustering of the dead.
Scheme | AAXXBB CCDDEE FFGGHH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 101011101010001 10101011010101 101111101011111 10111101010100 011010101010101 101010101010101 001010101011101 11101011101010 111000101111101 011010101010111 011011100011101 111110101011101 01111011011101 101011100010101 0010111101111 111010101011101 101011101111101 10110101010100101 |
Closest metre | Iambic octameter |
Characters | 1,147 |
Words | 213 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 18 |
Letters per line (avg) | 50 |
Words per line (avg) | 12 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 300 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 70 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:03 min read
- 85 Views
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