Analysis of Flying Squirrels
Andrew Barton Paterson 1864 (Orange, New South Wales) – 1941 (Sydney, New South Wales)
On the rugged water shed
At the top of the bridle track
Where years ago, as the old men say,
The splitters went with a bullock dray
But never a dray came back.
At the time of the gum tree bloom,
When the scent in the air is strong,
And the blossom stirs in the evening breeze,
You may see the squirrels among the trees,
Playing the whole night long.
Never a care at all
Bothers their simple brains;
You can see them glide in the moonlight dim
From tree to tree and from limb to limb,
Little grey aeroplanes.
Each like a dormouse sleeps
In the spout of a gum tree old,
A ball of fur with a silver coat;
Each with his tail around his throat
For fear of his catching cold.
These are the things he eats,
Asking his friends to dine:
Moths and beetles and newborn shoots,
Honey and snacks of the native fruits,
And a glass of dew for wine.
Scheme | XABBA XCDDC XXEEB XFGGF XHIIH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1010101 10110101 110110111 01110101 1100111 10110111 10100111 0010100101 1110100101 100111 100111 101101 111110011 111101111 1011 11011 00110111 011110101 11110111 1111101 110111 101111 10100101 100110101 0011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 817 |
Words | 167 |
Sentences | 6 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 |
Lines Amount | 25 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 130 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 33 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 16, 2023
- 50 sec read
- 99 Views
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"Flying Squirrels" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/2521/flying-squirrels>.
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