Analysis of The Dove Has A Word
Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis 1876 (Auburn) – 1938 (Melbourne)
With a sprig in my beak, I repeatedly seek
For a spot where a poor bird may rest,
While tumultuous man strives in vain for a plan
That may build me a permanent nest.
But I'm sick of this search. All I ask is a perch
In a cope, neither gaudy nor grand;
And they need me, they say in a 'passionate' way;
But as soon as I venture to land
There's a clashing of scabbards; a barking of dogs
And I'm off once again to the ambient fogs.
I'd a job long ago - for old Noah, you know
And I hadn't much trouble with that.
But this mechanised age makes the searching a rage
For a synthetic Mont Ararat.
I have sought me a home o'er Locarno and Rome,
O'er Geneva, week after drear week;
I have hovered and wheeled and while the nations appealed
But as soon as a haven I seek
There's a beating of drums, and a yelling of fear,
And I'm off once again to the calm stratosphere.
And now sounds a cooing, a tentative wooing,
Where Italy's olive groves gleam
And they press a bland oil from the fruits of their soil.
Is it olive they offer? Or, wait - they proffer
That oil named for Pollux's twin
That unguent, whose use 'mid Rome's rashly obtsue,
Helped the Fascist ideal to win?
If 'tis this, I am off to the cradle of stars
For a home with old bluff, unequivocal Mars!
Scheme | ABXBXCXCDX XXXXXAXAEE XXXXFDFGG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 101011101001 101101111 11001101101 111101001 111111111101 001101011 011111001001 111111011 10101101011 011101101001 101101111011 011011011 1111101001 10010110 11110110101 1001011011 1110010101001 111101011 101011001011 01110110110 011010010010 11001011 011011101111 111011011110 111111 11111111 10100111 111111101011 10111101001 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,239 |
Words | 250 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 10, 10, 9 |
Lines Amount | 29 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 319 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 83 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:18 min read
- 79 Views
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