Analysis of Early Morning Tea
Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis 1876 (Auburn) – 1938 (Melbourne)
You are growing convalescent
As pain's fingers are withdrawn;
And you waken in a strange, white room at last;
Yet your thought is aught but pleasant
In the cold, grey winter dawn,
As you realise a weakness not yet past.
Then a little sound comes creeping
From some distant inner shrine,
And you bid farewell to sleeping
At that trebly welcome sign.
'Tis the tink-clink-tinkle of a teacup,
From morbid thought imagination stirs;
And with sharp anticipation you await the glad libation
The draught of draughts the thristing tongue prefers.
And you listen for that soul-uplifting gurgle,
As from the precious pot you hear them pour
The golden brew you're craving . . . Then a weak, white hand is waving
To the white capped Sister smiling at the door.
More than all that Juno's daughter
Bore to tables of the great,
Sweeter far than all Olympian Hippocrene,
More than all man's heady water
Is the nectar you await,
Now to nibble bred-and-butter in between.
Say, can this be stuff man gobbles
Listlessly some afternoon?
Or, to sound of bells and bobbles,
Underneath a bright bush moon?
Hear that tink-clink-tinkle of the teacup,
And the rattle of the spoon against the cup.
Was cup-bearer ever sweeter? Then you meekly smile to greet her
And most valiantly struggle to sit up.
So, having quaffed, your head sinks to the pillow,
And you know contentment, lately past belief,
As, your heavy eyelids closing, once again you fall to dozing
While you bless all China and the precious leaf.
Scheme | ABCABCDEDE FGBGXHDH IJBIJXKLKL FFIFXMDM |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1110010 1110101 01100011111 11111110 0011101 111010111 10101110 1110101 0111110 111101 101110101 110100101 0110010101011 0111010101 01101111010 1101011111 010111010111110 10111010101 11111010 1110101 1011101001 11111010 1010101 11101010001 11111110 100101 11111010 010111 111110101 00101010101 1110101011101110 0110010111 11011111010 01101010101 111011010111110 11111000101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,456 |
Words | 255 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 10, 8, 10, 8 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 293 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 65 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 03, 2023
- 1:17 min read
- 117 Views
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"Early Morning Tea" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/6302/early-morning-tea>.
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