Analysis of Anticlimax
Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis 1876 (Auburn) – 1938 (Melbourne)
Now, my gift of crude invective is astonishingly high,
And I've quite a flair for fierce vituperation,
But I have to sit and watch the precious moments drifting by,
Just because my countrymen seek moderation.
But, ah, what verbal lightnings round my foeman's head might play
If I once became a freeman of the candid U.S.A.
Now 'a partly vocal crea puff with a taste for comic song'
Seems forced and weak and unimaginative;
While an 'economic shyster' I consider far from strong
In an artist with a claim to be creative.
I'd surely think of terser terms, original and tense
To fling abroad, while keeping to the strict Pickwickian sense.
For I have walked with bullockies back of the far Barcoo;
I've drunk with shearers, hit the track with stockmen;
And surely there is none upon the earth, I don't care who,
More famed for epithets that truly shock men.
Oh, I could 'trade a line of talk' to sting a heart of wood
Or blister brazen monkeys - well, I mean, I think I could.
Yet, when I reconsider it and con my lessons o'er,
I begin to doubt these mighty reputations;
Robbed of their scarlet adjective, their minds seem but a store
Of long outworn and crude reiterations,
And the fiercest trick of speech that these, my mates, can teach me now
Is to shake the ambient ether with, 'Oh, 'im? They silly cow!'
Scheme | ABABCC DEDEFF DBXBGG XXXFBX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111110101010001 01101111 111110101010101 10111001010 1111010111111 111010101010111 101010111011101 1101000100 11010101010111 011010111010 1101111010001 110111010111 11111111011 111110111 01011101011111 1111011011 11110111110111 11010101111111 11101010111010 10111110010 11110100111101 111011 001011111111111 1110100101111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic heptameter |
Characters | 1,292 |
Words | 242 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 42 |
Words per line (avg) | 10 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 255 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 60 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:14 min read
- 86 Views
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"Anticlimax" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/6191/anticlimax>.
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