Analysis of The Gentlemen of Dickens
Henry Lawson 1867 (Grenfell) – 1922 (Sydney)
The gentlemen of Dickens
Were mostly very poor,
And innocent of grammar,
And of parentage obscure;
But rich or poor or thriving,
Of high or lowly birth,
The gentlemen of Dickens
Were the grandest on the earth.
The gentlemen of Dickens,
They wore no fancy names—
Like Reginald or Percy
Fitzgerald or FitzJames;
But names for fools to laugh at,
That sound like hob-nailed boots,
Like Newman Noggs and Knubbles,
Toodles and Mr Toots.
They’d little save their kindness,
Their honesty and truth;
They mostly came embarrassed,
And stammering and uncouth;
But the gentlemen of Dickens,
Their women and their girls,
Could speak their minds if need be
To ladies and to earls.
But one who wore a title
A lesson, too, could teach:
Lord Feenix—Cousin Feenix
Of wandering legs and speech.
O he might teach a lesson
A gentleman could give,
Where he stands by his “lovely
And accomplished relative”.
The gentlemen of Dickens
Were gamblers now and then
(And looked upon the ladies,
No doubt, like other men);
And some of them were drunkards,
It cannot be denied;
But one washed all their sins away
When Sidney Carton died.
The gentlemen of Dickens
Are round us here to-day,
For their self-sacrificing
Brave spirits live for aye.
They cheer my heart and lift it,
They set my blood aglow,
For I was once a gentleman,
Though it was years ago.
Scheme | AxxxbcAc Axdaxeae xfxfagdg xhahijdj Akxkxlml Ambxxnin |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0100110 010101 0100110 0110001 1111110 111101 0100110 0010101 0100110 111101 1100110 01011 1111111 111111 110101 10101 1101110 110001 1101010 01011 10100110 110011 1111111 110011 1111010 010111 11101 1100101 1111010 010011 1111110 0010100 0100110 010101 0101010 111101 0111010 110101 11111101 110101 0100110 111111 111100 110111 1111011 111101 11110100 111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,294 |
Words | 233 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 174 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 39 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:09 min read
- 68 Views
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"The Gentlemen of Dickens" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18002/the-gentlemen-of-dickens>.
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