Analysis of The Bleating of the Sheep
Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis 1876 (Auburn) – 1938 (Melbourne)
Lo, I listened to the bleating of the sheep
Squatters' sheep
And I sat me down and pondered long and deep.
And a cloud of gloom came o'er me
At the empty leagues before me
Yea, I marked the virgin grass-lands' mighty sweep
Land that called for cultivation;
Cried aloud for population
Land that carried trees and fences, grass and sheep.
0, I listened to their bleating on the plain
Virgin plain
And I spoke to them with epithets profane.
In the valley, on the hill,
Yet were sheep, and more sheep still.
(Which annoyed me very much, I must explain.
For one sheep may he a blessing,
But a million are depressing.)
And I cursed them, but I knew I cursed in vain.
Lo! and then I fell a-dreaming where I sat
Sadly sat
Till I didn't see what I was looking at.
And my dream was most alluring.
Ah ! But, had it been enduring,
What a reckoning it would have been for Fat!
What a blessing for Australia
If my dream - but inter alia,
I'll explain to you what I am driving at.
Lo! (excuse this weird redundancy of 'lo,'
Soulful 'lo';
But I want to be impressive, you must know).
Lo! instead of jumbucks bleating,
I could hear the reaper's beating;
And I saw abundant milk and honey flow.
I espied snug homesteads dotted
O'er the plain. I also spotted
Towns, with factories and workshops, rise and grow.
Ay, at busy line of commerce filled the place
Desert place
And mine eyes beheld a happy populace
Wresting from the land its treasure
Loving work and earning leisure.
Industry and population grew apace.
I could hear the hammers ringing;
Happy housewives blithely singing;
And I read Prosperity in every face.
Then I saw a file of troops go marching past
Bravely past.
Adown the plain I heard the bugle's blast.
I beheld the banners streaming,
And I fancied in my dreaming
That our happy country owned an army vast.
As each patriot marched proudly
By, he cried, exulting loudly,
'Fair Australia is safely ours at last!'
Then a large, red man rode up upon a horse,
(Large roan horse),
And spoke to me in strident tones and coarse.
And his discourse was (diluted)
'Wanderers are prosecuted
On this crimson run. Now get!' I got - of course.
As I've said, the man was bulky,
And he seemed morose and sulky;
And it just occurred to me he might use force.
But, in spite of him, my dream I still may keep
Fondly keep.
And from out it sprouts the wisdom that I reap
For the benefit of all men,
But especially of little men.
(Meaning men whose wealth does not exceed one heap.)
Ay, the lesson is before you
Pray forgive me if I bore you;
But, my brothers, heed the lesson of the sheep!
For, hark ye, hear the bleating of the sheep
Human sheep!
(O, my brothers, but their sheephood makes me weep!)
Mark ye, how they flock togeth
After some old, sly bell-wether
One that Fat finds it convenient to keep;
Watch them how they follow, follow.
See the verbal weeds they swallow,
And the squatter keeps his grass for paying sheep.
O, the squatter has of woolly sheep a lot
Quite a lot;
But they're not the only sort of sheep he's got.
How he profits by their fleeces
And, when price of meat decreases
Human meat - the butcher, Fat, will take the lot.
O, ye farmers and selectors!
Landless voters! Free electors!
Think, my brothers: are ye sheep, or are ye not?
Scheme | AAABBACCA DDDEEDFFD GGGFFGXEG HHHFFHIIH JJXKKJFFJ LLLFFLBBL MMMIXMBFM AAANNAOOA AAAXKAHHA PPPXXPJXP |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (24%) |
Metre | 1110101101 101 01111010101 001111101 10101011 11101011101 1111010 1011010 11101010101 110111101 101 0111111001 0010101 1010111 10111011101 11111010 10101010 01111111101 10111010111 101 11101111101 01111010 11111010 10100111111 10101010 1111011 10111111101 10111010011 101 11111010111 101111 1110110 01101010101 111110 100111010 1110001101 11101110101 101 0111010100 10101110 10101010 1000010101 11101010 1011010 011010001001 11101111101 101 10111011 1101010 01100110 110101011101 11100110 11101010 10101101011 10111110101 111 0111010101 01101010 1001100 11101111111 11101110 0110101 01101111111 10111111111 101 01111010111 10100111 10101101 10111110111 10101011 10111111 11101010101 111101101 101 1110111111 111111 1011111 1111101011 11111010 10101110 00101111101 10101110101 101 11101011111 11101110 01111010 10101011101 111001 10101010 11101111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 3,176 |
Words | 609 |
Sentences | 46 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9 |
Lines Amount | 90 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 249 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 61 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 3:04 min read
- 63 Views
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"The Bleating of the Sheep" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/6575/the-bleating-of-the-sheep>.
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