Analysis of The Bush Rangers
Edward Harrington 1896 (Shepparton) – 1966
Four horseman rode out from the heart of the range,
Four horseman with aspects forbidding and strange.
They were booted and spurred, they were armed to the teeth,
And they frowned as they looked at the valley beneath,
As forward they rode through the rocks and the fern -
Ned Kelly, Dan Kelly, Steve Hart and Joe Byrne.
Ned Kelly drew rein and he shaded his eyes -
'The town's at our mercy! See yonder it lies!
To hell with the troopers!' - he shook his clenched fist -
'We will shoot them like dogs if they dare to resist!'
And all of them nodded, grim-visaged and stern -
Ned Kelly, Dan Kelly, Steve Hart and Joe Byrne.
Through the gullies and creeks they rode silently down;
They stuck-up the station and raided the town;
They opened the safe and they looted the bank;
They laughed and were merry, they ate and they drank.
Then off to the ranges they went with their gold -
Oh! never were bandits more reckless and bold.
But time brings its punishment, time travels fast -
And the outlaws were trapped in Glenrowan at last,
Where three of them died in the smoke and the flame,
And Ned Kelly came back - to the last he was game.
But the Law shot him down (he was fated to hang),
And that was the end of the bushranging gang.
Whatever their faults and whatever their crimes,
Their deeds lend romance to those faraway times.
They have gone from the gullies they haunted of old,
And nobody knows where they buried their gold.
To the ranges they loved they will never return -
Ned Kelly, Dan Kelly, Steve Hart and Joe Byrne.
But at times when I pass through that sleepy old town
Where the far-distant peaks of Strathbogie look down
I think of the days when those grim ranges rang
To the galloping hooves of the bushranging gang.
Though the years bring oblivion, time brings a change,
The ghosts of the Kellys still ride from the range.
Scheme | aabbcC ddeecC ffgghh iijjkk llhhcC ffkkaa |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11011101101 1101101001 101001101101 011111101001 11011101001 11011011011 11011011011 011101011011 11101011111 111111111101 0111101101 11011011011 101001111001 11101001001 11001011001 11001011011 11101011111 11001011001 11111001101 001010111 11111001001 011011101111 101111111011 011011011 101101011 11101111011 111101011011 011111011 101011111001 11011011011 111111111011 1011011111 11101111101 1010011011 101101001101 01101011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,806 |
Words | 346 |
Sentences | 18 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 40 |
Words per line (avg) | 10 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 239 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 57 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 14, 2023
- 1:43 min read
- 127 Views
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"The Bush Rangers" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/9633/the-bush-rangers>.
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