Analysis of Cunningham's Gap
Henry Mackenzie Green 1881 (Sydney) – 1962
As I came over Cunningham's Gap
a skin of time peeled off the map
The fern's green ocean overflowed
the hard black surface of the road
and lapped the wheel rims of the dray
and the sweating bullocks where they lay,
and washed the car out of today.
A cloud of cockatoos, snow on the hill
shrieked out of distance and were still.
Cedar, sassafras, bunya pine,
stinging nettle and lawyer-vine
baffled my passage and blocked my sight
as I swarmed the hummocks and climbed the height.
But long months' labour through wood and waste
dropped from my bones as I gazed at last.
round to round, to the rim of the sun,
on a world of richness not yet won;
broad fat pastures and rolling downs,
Wheat fields and Orchards, farms and towns,
ghosts of the future surged at the gate
of time and being and would not wait.
As I shouted in triumph, the Darling Downs
leapt into life with farms and towns;
Wheat field and orchards, flocks and herds,
grass to the bellies, woke at my words.
the cloud of cockatoos, snow on the hill,
shrieked out of distance and were still,
and the skin of time crept over the map
as I started my car in Cunningham's Gap.
Scheme | aabbcccdDeeffghiijjkkjjlldDaa |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11110101 01111101 0111001 01110101 01011101 001010111 01011101 011101101 11110001 101011 10100101 101100111 111010101 11111101 111111111 111101101 101110111 11100101 11010101 110101101 110100111 11100100101 10111101 11010101 110101111 011101101 11110001 0011111001 1110110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,112 |
Words | 214 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 29 |
Lines Amount | 29 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 890 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 212 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:05 min read
- 101 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Cunningham's Gap" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 15 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18201/cunningham%27s-gap>.
Discuss this Henry Mackenzie Green poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In