Analysis of Fur And Feathers
Andrew Barton Paterson 1864 (Orange, New South Wales) – 1941 (Sydney, New South Wales)
The emus formed a football team
Up Walgett way;
Their dark-brown sweaters were a dream
But kangaroos would sit and scream
To watch them play.
'Now, butterfingers,' they would call,
And suck-like names;
The emus couldn't hold the ball
They had no hands, but hands aren't all
In football games.
A match against the kangaroos
They played one day.
The kangaroos were forced to choose
Some wallabies and wallaroos
That played in grey.
The rules that in the west prevail
Would shock the town;
For when a kangaroo set sail
An emu jumped upon his tail
And fetched him down.
A whistler duck as referee
Was not admired.
He whistled so incessantly
The teams rebelled, and up a tree
He soon retired.
The old marsupial captain said,
'It's do or die!'
So down the ground like fire he fled
And leaped above an emu's head
And scored a try.
Then shouting, 'Keep it on the toes!'
The emus came.
Fierce as the flooded Bogan flows
They laid their foemen out in rows
And saved the game.
In native bear and Darling pea
They dined that night:
But one man was an absentee:
The whistler duck, their referee,
Had taken flight.
Scheme | ABAAB CDCCD EBEDB FGFFG HXHHX IJIIJ KLKKL HMHHM |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (30%) Tetractys (28%) |
Metre | 011011 111 11110001 1011101 1111 11111 0111 0110101 111111101 011 0101001 1111 0010111 110001 1101 01100101 1101 1100111 1110111 0111 0101101 11010 11010100 01010101 1101 010100101 1111 110111011 0101111 0101 11011101 011 11010101 1111101 0101 01010101 1111 1111101 0101101 1101 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,069 |
Words | 205 |
Sentences | 14 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 108 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 25 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 01, 2023
- 1:01 min read
- 478 Views
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"Fur And Feathers" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/2524/fur-and-feathers>.
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