Analysis of The Great Grey Water
Edwin James Brady 1869 (Carcoar, New South Wales) – 1952 (Pambula, New South Wales)
Now two have met, now two have met,
Who may not meet again—
Two grains of sand, two blades of grass,
Two threads within the skein—
Beside the Great Grey Water.
Two hands to touch, two hearts to touch;
And, here forgathered, we
Will not forget, may not forget,
Where last forgathered three—
Beyond the Great Grey Water.
Two glasses filled, two pipes to fill—
‘To all our fortunes, brother!’
And as they clink—like so—we drink
Fair passage to the other
Across the Great Grey Water.
For three have sailed, and one has sailed,
His sins, like ours, still on him,
God sleep his soul! five oceans roll
Their long weight all upon him.
O God! thy Great Grey Water!
But I am still, and you are still,
And here our chance has flung us;
True comrades we, but…there were three
And one is not among us
Beside the Great Grey Water.
A breathing space, a biding place,
Soft lights and beakers beaded,
Then out again and on again,
Unminded and unheeded,
Across the Great Grey Water.
Now two have met where three have met
With curses or with laughter;
And so our Day shall pass away,
And so our Night come after—
But, ah! the Great Grey Water
Scheme | abxxC xdadc ecxcC xfxfc egdgC xhbhC acxcc |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11111111 111101 11111111 110101 0101110 11111111 0111 11011101 1111 0101110 11011111 11101010 01111111 1101010 0101110 11110111 11110111 11111101 1111011 1111110 11110111 01101111 1111101 0111011 0101110 01010101 110110 11010101 10010 0101110 11111111 1101110 011011101 01101110 1101110 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,244 |
Words | 212 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 |
Lines Amount | 35 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 124 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 30 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 11, 2023
- 1:03 min read
- 104 Views
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"The Great Grey Water" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/10105/the-great-grey-water>.
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