Analysis of A Bush Christening
On the outer Barcoo where the churches are few,
And men of religion are scanty,
On a road never cross'd 'cept by folk that are lost,
One Michael Magee had a shanty.
Now this Mike was the dad of a ten-year-old lad,
Plump, healthy, and stoutly conditioned;
He was strong as the best, but poor Mike had no rest
For the youngster had never been christened.
And his wife used to cry, "If the darlin' should die
Saint Peter would not recognize him."
But by luck he survived till a preacher arrived,
Who agreed straightaway to baptize him.
Now the artful young rogue, while they held their collogue,
With his ear to the keyhole was listenin';
And he muttered in fright, while his features turned white,
"What the divil and all is this christenin'?"
He was none of your dolts, He had seen them brand colts,
And it seemed to his small understanding,
If the man in the frock made him one of the flock,
It must mean something very like branding.
So away with a rush he set off for the bush,
While the tears in his eyelids they glistened,
"'Tis outrageous," says he, "to brand youngsters like me;
I'll be dashed if I'll stop to be christened!"
Like a young native dog he ran into a log,
And his father with language uncivil,
Never heeding the "praste", cried aloud in his haste
"Come out and be christened, you divil!"
But he lay there as snug as a bug in a rug,
And his parents in vain might reprove him,
Till his reverence spoke (he was fond of a joke)
"I've a notion," says he, "that'll move him.
"Poke a stick up the log, give the spalpeen a prog;
Poke him aisy, don't hurt him or maim him;
'Tis not long that he'll stand, I've the water at hand,
As he rushes out this end I'll name him.
"Here he comes, and for shame, ye've forgotten the name,
Is it Patsy or Michael or Dinnis?"
Here the youngster ran out, and the priest gave a shout,
"Take your chance, anyhow, wid `Maginnis'!"
As the howling young cub ran away to the scrub
Where he knew that pursuit would be risky,
The priest, as he fled, flung a flask at his head
That was labeled "Maginnis's Whiskey"!
Now Maginnis Magee has been made a J.P.,
And the one thing he hates more than sin is
To be asked by the folk, who have heard of the joke,
How he came to be christened Maginnis!
Scheme | XAXA XBXB XCXC DEXE FDDD XBAB DGXG DCDC DCXC XFXF XAXA XXDX |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 10101101011 011010110 101101111111 110011010 111101101111 110010010 111101111111 1010110110 011111101011 11011101 111101101001 101101011 10101111111 11110111 011001111011 10101111 111111111111 011111010 101001111101 1111010110 101101111101 101011110 101011111011 1111111110 101101110101 0110110010 101001101011 11011011 111111101001 011001111 111001111101 1010111011 10110110101 111111111 111111101011 1110111111 1110111101001 111011011 101011001101 1111011 101011101101 1111011110 01111101111 1110110 11000111101 0011111111 111101111101 1111110100 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 2,214 |
Words | 444 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 12 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 141 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 35 |
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Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:14 min read
- 10 Views
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"A Bush Christening" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 7 Sep. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/54819/a-bush-christening>.
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