Analysis of The Lost Drink

Andrew Barton Paterson 1864 (Orange, New South Wales) – 1941 (Sydney, New South Wales)



I had spent the night in the watch-house --
My head was the size of three --
So I went and asked the chemist
To fix up a drink for me;
And he brewed it from various bottles
With soda and plenty of ice,
With something that smelt like lemon,
And something that seemed like spice.
It fell on my parching palate
Like the dew on a sunbaked plain,
And my system began to flourish
Like the grass in the soft spring rain;
It wandered throughout my being,
Suffusing my soul with rest,
And I felt as I "scoffed" that liquid
That life had a new-found zest.

I have been on the razzle-dazzle
Full many a time since then
But I never could get the chemist
To brew me that drink again.
He says he's forgotten the notion --
'Twas only by chance it came --
He's tried me with various liquids
But oh! they are not the same.

We have sought, but we sought it vainly,
That one lost drink divine;
We have sampled his various bottles,
But somehow they don't combine:
Yet I know when I cross the River
And stand on the Golden Shore
I shall meet with an angel chemist
To brew me that drink once more.


Scheme XABACDEDXFXFXGXG XHBHEIXI AJCJXKBK
Poetic Form
Metre 111010011 1110111 11101010 1110111 0111110010 11001011 11011110 0101111 1111110 1011011 011001110 10100111 11001110 0101111 011111110 1110111 111101010 1100111 111011010 1111101 111010010 1101111 111110010 1111101 111111110 111101 1110110010 111110 111111010 0110101 111111010 1111111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,082
Words 213
Sentences 7
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 16, 8, 8
Lines Amount 32
Letters per line (avg) 26
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 276
Words per stanza (avg) 70
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:04 min read
80

Andrew Barton Paterson

Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson, was an Australian bush poet, journalist and author. He wrote many ballads and poems about Australian life, focusing particularly on the rural and outback areas, including the district around Binalong, New South Wales, where he spent much of his childhood. Paterson's more notable poems include "Clancy of the Overflow" (1889), "The Man from Snowy River" (1890) and "Waltzing Matilda" (1895), regarded widely as Australia's unofficial national anthem. more…

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