Analysis of The Yellow Bittern (An Bunnan Bui)
Cathal Bui Mac Giolla Gunna 1680 – 1756
The yellow bittern that never broke out
In a drinking bout, might as well have drunk;
His bones are thrown on a naked stone
Where he lived alone like a hermit monk.
0 yellow bittern! I pity your lot,
Though they say that a sot like myself is curst
I was sober a while, but I'll drink and be wise
For I fear I should die in the end of thirst.
It's not for the common birds that I'd mourn,
The blackbird, the corn-crake, or the crane,
But for the bittern that's shy and apart
Where he drinks in the marsh from the lone bog-drain.
Oh! if I had known you were near your death
While my breath held out I'd have run to you,
Till a splash from the Lake of the Son of the Bird
Your soul would have stirred and waked anew.
My darling told me to drink no more
Or my life would be o'er in a little short while;
But I told her 'tis drink gives me health and strength
And will lengthen my road by many a mile.
You see how the bird of the long smooth neck
Could get his death from the thirst at last
Come, son of my soul, and drain your cup,
You'll get no sup when your life is past.
In a wintering island by Constantine's halls
A bittern calls from a wineless place,
And tells me that hither he cannot come
Till the summer is here and the sunny days.
When he crosses the stream there and wings o'er the sea
Then a fear comes to me he may fail in his flight—
Well, the milk and the ale are drunk every drop,
And a dram won't stop our thirst this night.
Scheme | ABXBXAXX XCXCXDXD XEXEXFXF XXXXXGXG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 010111011 0010111111 111110101 1110110101 10111011 1111011111 111001111011 11111100111 1110101111 010011101 110111001 11100110111 1111110111 1111111111 101101101101 111110101 110111111 1111110001011 11101111101 01101111001 1110110111 111110111 111110111 111111111 00110111 0111011 0111101101 10101100101 1110011011001 101111111011 101001111001 0011110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,409 |
Words | 294 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 276 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 74 |
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