Analysis of Daylight is Dying
Andrew Barton Paterson 1864 (Orange, New South Wales) – 1941 (Sydney, New South Wales)
The daylight is dying
Away in the west,
The wild birds are flying
in silence to rest;
In leafage and frondage
Where shadows are deep,
They pass to its bondage--
The kingdom of sleep
And watched in their sleeping
By stars in the height,
They rest in your keeping,
O wonderful night.
When night doth her glories
Of starshine unfold,
'Tis then that the stories
Of bush-land are told.
Unnumbered I told them
In memories bright,
But who could unfold them,
Or read them aright?
Beyond all denials
The stars in their glories,
The breeze in the myalls,
Are part of these stories.
The waving of grasses,
The song of the river
That sings as it passes
For ever and ever,
The hobble-chains' rattle,
The calling of birds,
The lowing of cattle
Must blend with the words.
Without these, indeed you
Would find it ere long,
As though I should read you
The words of a song
That lamely would linger
When lacking the rune,
The voice of a singer,
The lilt of the tune.
But as one halk-bearing
An old-time refrain,
With memory clearing,
Recalls it again,
These tales roughly wrought of
The Bush and its ways,
May call back a thought of
The wandering days;
And, blending with each
In the memories that throng
There haply shall reach
You some echo of song.
Scheme | ABABCDCDAEAEFGFG HEHBXFFF IJIJKLKL MNMNJOJO AXAXPQPQRNRN |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01110 01001 011110 01011 0101 1111 111110 01011 010110 11001 110110 11001 111010 1101 111010 11111 1111 01001 111011 1111 011010 010110 01001 111110 010110 011010 111110 110010 010110 01011 010110 11101 011011 11111 111111 01101 110110 11001 011010 01101 111110 11101 110010 1101 111011 01011 111011 01001 01011 0010011 1111 111011 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,241 |
Words | 227 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 16, 8, 8, 8, 12 |
Lines Amount | 52 |
Letters per line (avg) | 19 |
Words per line (avg) | 4 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 194 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 45 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:08 min read
- 125 Views
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"Daylight is Dying" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/2514/daylight-is-dying>.
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