Analysis of To The Men Of The Mines
Edward George Dyson 1865 (Ballarat, Victoria) – 1931 (Saint Kilda, Melbourne, Victoria)
WE SPECKED as boys o’er worked-out ground
By littered fiat and muddy stream,
We watched the whim horse trudging round,
And rode upon the circling beam,
Within the old uproarious mill
Fed mad, insatiable stamps,
Mined peaceful gorge and gusty hill
With pan, and pick, and gad, and drill,
And knew the stir of sudden camps.
By yellow dams in summer days
We puddled at the tom; for weeks
Went seeking up the tortuous ways
Of gullies deep and hidden creeks.
We worked the shallow leads in style,
And hunted fortune down the drives,
And missed her, mostly by a mile—
Once by a yard or so. The while
We lived untrammelled, easy lives.
Through blazing days upon the brace
We laboured, and when night had passed
Beheld the glory and the grace
Of wondrous dawns in bushlands vast.
We heard the burdened timbers groan
In deep mines murmurous as the seas
On long, lone shores by drear winds blown.
We’ve seen heroic deeds, and known
The digger’s joys and tragedies.
I write in rhyme of all these things,
With little skill, perhaps, but you,
To whom each tale a memory brings
Of bygone days, will know them true.
Should mates who’ve worked in stope and face,
Who’ve trenched the hill and swirled the dish,
Or toiled upon the plat and brace,
Find pleasure in the lines I trace,
No better welcome could I wish.
Scheme | ABABCDCCD EFEFGXGGX HIHIJKJJK LMLMHNHHN |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11111111 110100101 11011101 010101001 010111 1101001 11010101 11010101 01011101 11010101 1110111 110101001 11010101 11010101 01010101 01010101 11011101 111101 11010101 1101111 1010001 1101011 11010101 0111101 11111111 11010101 01010100 11011111 11010111 111101001 1111111 11110101 11010101 11010101 11000111 11010111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,281 |
Words | 237 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 9, 9, 9, 9 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 255 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 59 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:11 min read
- 100 Views
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"To The Men Of The Mines" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/9616/to-the-men-of-the-mines>.
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