Analysis of When Underneath the Brown Dead Grass
Henry Kendall 1839 (Australia) – 1882 (Sydney)
When underneath the brown dead grass
My weary bones are laid,
I hope I shall not see the glass
At ninety in the shade.
I trust indeed that, when I lie
Beneath the churchyard pine,
I shall not hear that startling cry
“‘Thermom’ is ninety-nine!”
If one should whisper through my sleep
“Come up and be alive,”
I’d answer—No, unless you’ll keep
The glass at sixty-five.
I might be willing if allowed
To wear old Adam’s rig,
And mix amongst the city crowd
Like Polynesian “nig”.
Far better in the sod to lie,
With pasturing pig above,
Than broil beneath a copper sky—
In sight of all I love!
Far better to be turned to grass
To feed the poley cow,
Than be the half boiled bream, alas,
That I am really now!
For cow and pig I would not hear,
And hoof I would not see;
But if these items did appear
They wouldn’t trouble me.
For ah! the pelt of mortal man
Weighs less than half a ton,
And any sight is better than
A sultry southern sun.
Scheme | ABABCDCDEFEFGHGH CICIAJAJ XKXKLMLM |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1010111 110111 11111101 110001 11011111 01011 11111101 11101 11110111 110101 11010111 011101 11110101 111101 01010101 1101 11000111 11101 11010101 011111 11011111 110101 11011101 111101 11011111 011111 11110101 11101 11011101 111101 01011101 010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 937 |
Words | 184 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 16, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 237 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 60 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 55 sec read
- 85 Views
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