Analysis of In the Dim Counties
John Shaw Neilson 1872 (Penola, South Australia) – 1942 (Melbourne, Victoria)
In the dim counties
we take the long calm
Lilting no haziness,
sequel or psalm.
The little street wenches,
The holy and clean,
Live as good neighbours live
under the green.
Malice of sunbeam or
menace of moon
Piping shall leave us
no taste of a tune.
In the dim counties
the eyelids are dumb,
To the lean citizens
Love cannot come.
Love in the yellowing,
Love at the turn,
Love o' the cooing lip—
how should he burn?
The little street wenches,
the callous, unclean
—Could they but tell us what
all the gods mean.
Love cannot sabre us,
blood cannot flow,
In the dim counties
that wait us below.
| Scheme | Axax Bcxc xded Afxf xgxg Bcxc ehAh |
|---|---|
| Poetic Form | Quatrain (86%) |
| Metre | 00110 11011 111 1011 010110 01001 11111 1001 10111 1011 10111 11101 00110 0111 101100 1101 100100 1101 110101 1111 010110 01001 111111 1011 110101 1101 00110 11101 |
| Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
| Characters | 578 |
| Words | 113 |
| Sentences | 8 |
| Stanzas | 7 |
| Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
| Lines Amount | 28 |
| Letters per line (avg) | 17 |
| Words per line (avg) | 4 |
| Letters per stanza (avg) | 66 |
| Words per stanza (avg) | 16 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 33 sec read
- 32 Views
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"In the Dim Counties" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/24070/in-the-dim-counties>.
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