Analysis of The Winds Message
Andrew Barton Paterson 1864 (Orange, New South Wales) – 1941 (Sydney, New South Wales)
There came a whisper down the Bland between the dawn and dark,
Above the tossing of the pines, above the river's flow;
It stirred the boughs of giant gums and stalwart iron-bark;
It drifted where the wild ducks played amid the swamps below;
It brought a breath of mountain air from off the hills of pine,
A scent of eucalyptus trees in honey-laden bloom;
And drifting, drifting far away along the Southern line
It caught from leaf and grass and fern a subtle strange perfume.
It reached the toiling city folk, but few there were that heard--
The rattle of their busy life had choked the whisper down;
And some but caught a fresh-blown breeze with scent of pine that stirred
A thought of blue hills far away beyond the smoky town;
And others heard the whisper pass, but could not understand
The magic of the breeze's breath that set their hearts aglow,
Nor how the roving wind could bring across the Overland
A sound of voices silent now and songs of long ago.
But some that heard the whisper clear were filled with vague unrest;
The breeze had brought its message home, they could not fixed abide;
Their fancies wandered all the day towards the blue hills' breast,
Towards the sunny slopes that lie along the riverside,
The mighty rolling western plains are very fair to see,
Where waving to the passing breeze the silver myalls stand,
But fairer are the giant hills, all rugged though they be,
From which the two great rivers rise that run along the Bland.
Oh! rocky range and rugged spur and river running clear,
That swings around the sudden bends with swirl of snow-white foam,
Though we, your sons are far away, we sometimes seem to hear
The message that the breezes bring to call the wanderers home.
The mountain peaks are white with snow that feeds a thousand rills,
Along the rive banks the maize grows tall on virgin land,
And we shall live to see once more those sunny southern hills,
And strike once more the bridle track that leads along the Bland.
Scheme | ABABCDCD EFEFGBGB HIHIJGJG XKXKJGXG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11010101010101 01010101010101 11011101010101 11010111010101 11011101110111 0110101010101 01010101010101 11110101010101 11010101111011 01011101110101 01110111111111 01111101010101 0101010111101 0101011111101 1101011101010 01110101011101 11110101011101 01111101111101 11010101010111 0101011101010 01010101110111 1101010101011 11010101110111 11011101110101 11010101010101 11010101111111 11111101101111 010101011101001 01011111110101 0101101111101 01111111110101 01110101110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic heptameter |
Characters | 1,968 |
Words | 354 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 49 |
Words per line (avg) | 11 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 391 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 88 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:46 min read
- 97 Views
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"The Winds Message" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/2719/the-winds-message>.
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