Analysis of The Legend of Cooee Gully
Henry Lawson 1867 (Grenfell) – 1922 (Sydney)
The night came down thro’ Deadman’s Gap,
Where the ghostly saplings bent
Before a wind that tore the fly
From many a digger’s tent.
Dark as pitch, and the rain rushed past
On a wind that howled again;
And we crowded into the only but
That stood on the hillside then.
The strong pine rafters creaked and strained,
’Til we thought that the roof would go;
And we felt the box-bark walls bend in
And bulge like calico.
A flood had come from the gorges round:
Thro’ the gully’s bed it poured.
Down many a deep, deserted shaft
The yellow waters roared.
The scene leapt out when the lightning flashed
And shone with a ghastly grey;
And the night sprang back to the distant range
’Neath a sky as bright as day.
Then the darkness closed like a trap that was sprung,
And the night grew black as coals,
And we heard the ceaseless thunder
Of the water down the holes.
And now and then like a cannon’s note
That sounds in the battle din,
We heard the louder thunder spring
From a shaft, when the sides fell in.
We had gathered close to the broad but fire
To yarn of the by-gone years,
When a coo-ee that came from the flooded grounds
Fell sharp on our startled ears.
We sprang to our feet, for well we knew
That in speed lay the only hope;
One caught and over his shoulder threw
A coil of yellow rope.
Then, blinded oft by the lightning’s flash,
Down the steep hillside we sped,
And at times we slipped on the sodden path
That ran to the gully’s bed.
And on past many a broken shaft
All reckless of risk we ran,
For the wind still brought in spiteful gusts
The cry of the drowning man.
But the cooeying ceased when we reached the place;
And then, ere a man could think,
We heard the treacherous earth give way
And fall from a shaft’s black brink.
And deep and wide the rotten side
Slipped into the hungry hole,
And the phosphorus leapt and vanished
Like the flight of the stranger’s soul.
And still in the sound of the rushing rain,
When the night comes dark and drear,
From the pitch-black side of that gully wide
The coo-ee you’ll hear and hear.
Coo-ee — coo-e-e-e, low and eerily,
It whispers afar and drear —
And then to the heart like an icy dart
It strikes thro’ the startled ear!
Dreader than wrung from the human tongue
It shrieks o’er the sound of the rain,
And back on the hill when the wind is still
It whispers and dies again.
And on thro’ the night like the voice of a sprite
That tells of a dire mishap
It echoes around in the gully’s bound
And out thro’ Deadman’s Gap.
Scheme | ABXBXCXC XDED FGHG XIXI JKLK XEXE LMXM NONO XPXP HQXQ XRIR STXT CISU XIXU JCXC XAFA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0111111 1010101 01011101 1100101 11100111 1011101 0110010101 111011 01110101 11110111 011011110 01110 011110101 101111 110010101 010101 011110101 0110101 0011110101 1011111 10101101111 0011111 01101010 1010101 010110101 1100101 11010101 10110110 11101101110 1110111 10111110101 11110101 1111011111 10110101 110101101 011101 110110101 101111 0111110101 111011 011100101 1101111 101110101 0110101 101111101 0110111 110100111 0110111 01010101 1010101 001001010 10110101 0100110101 1011101 1011111101 0111101 11111110100 1100101 0110111101 1110101 11110101 11101101 0110110111 1100101 01101101101 111011 110010011 01111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,469 |
Words | 475 |
Sentences | 19 |
Stanzas | 16 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 68 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 120 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 30 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:22 min read
- 99 Views
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"The Legend of Cooee Gully" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 20 Sep. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18028/the-legend-of-cooee-gully>.
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