Analysis of A Drover
Padraic Colum 1881 (County Longford) – 1972 (Enfield)
To Meath of the pastures,
From wet hills by the sea,
Through Leitrim and Longford
Go my cattle and me.
I hear in the darkness
Their slipping and breathing.
I name them the bye-ways
They’re to pass without heeding.
Then the wet, winding roads,
Brown bogs with black water;
And my thoughts on white ships
And the King o’ Spain’s daughter.
O! farmer, strong farmer!
You can spend at the fair
But your face you must turn
To your crops and your care.
And soldiers—red soldiers!
You’ve seen many lands;
But you walk two by two,
And by captain’s commands.
O! the smell of the beasts,
The wet wind in the morn;
And the proud and hard earth
Never broken for corn;
And the crowds at the fair,
The herds loosened and blind,
Loud words and dark faces
And the wild blood behind.
(O! strong men with your best
I would strive breast to breast
I could quiet your herds
With my words, with my words.)
I will bring you, my kine,
Where there’s grass to the knee;
But you’ll think of scant croppings
Harsh with salt of the sea.
Scheme | ABCBDEFEGHIHHJKJALMLNOPOJCQCCCRRKBAB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111010 111101 1101 111001 110010 110010 111011 1110110 101101 111110 011111 0011110 110110 111101 111111 111011 010110 11101 111111 011001 101101 011001 001011 101011 001101 011001 110110 001101 111111 111111 111011 111111 111111 111101 111111 111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,031 |
Words | 193 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 36 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 22 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 776 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 190 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 30, 2023
- 57 sec read
- 161 Views
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