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 Views
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"The Lost Drink" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/2656/the-lost-drink>.
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