Analysis of The First Dingo
Henry Lawson 1867 (Grenfell) – 1922 (Sydney)
The kangaroo was formed to run,
but not from man alone -
it ran before the horse or gun
or native dog was known.
It ran when drought left waterholes
three hundred miles between -
from great floods and greater fires
than we have ever seen.
The blacks beside the coastal springs,
where mountain sides are steep,
they bred and kept their kangaroo
much tamer than are sheep.
And when the men fought inland tribes
or when they roamed at large,
they drove their flocks down to the sea
and left the gins in charge.
And so, alert, with startled eyes
the shepherdess in fear
perceives with wonder and surprise
some foreign beats appear.
She watches, creeping through the trees,
and round the blackened logs
the strangest sight by southern seas -
the stranded Dutchmans's dogs.
Scheme | ABABCDCD CEXECFCF CGCGCCCC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0011111 111101 11010111 110111 111111 110101 11101010 111101 01010101 110111 1101101 110111 0101111 111111 11111101 010101 01011101 0101 01110001 110101 11010101 010101 01011101 01011 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 753 |
Words | 138 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 205 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 45 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 41 sec read
- 109 Views
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"The First Dingo" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/17995/the-first-dingo>.
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