Analysis of The jaffa and jerusalem railway
Eugene Field 1850 (St. Louis) – 1895 (Chicago)
A tortuous double iron track; a station here, a station there;
A locomotive, tender, tanks; a coach with stiff reclining chair;
Some postal cars, and baggage, too; a vestibule of patent make;
With buffers, duffers, switches, and the soughing automatic brake--
This is the Orient's novel pride, and Syria's gaudiest modern gem:
The railway scheme that is to ply 'twixt Jaffa and Jerusalem.
Beware, O sacred Mooley cow, the engine when you hear its bell;
Beware, O camel, when resounds the whistle's shrill, unholy swell;
And, native of that guileless land, unused to modern travel's snare,
Beware the fiend that peddles books--the awful peanut-boy beware.
Else, trusting in their specious arts, you may have reason to condemn
The traffic which the knavish ply 'twixt Jaffa and Jerusalem.
And when, ah, when the bonds fall due, how passing wroth will wax the
state
From Nebo's mount to Nazareth will spread the cry "Repudiate"!
From Hebron to Tiberius, from Jordan's banks unto the sea,
Will rise profuse anathemas against "that ---- monopoly!"
And F.M.B.A. shepherd-folk, with Sockless Jerry leading them,
Will swamp that corporation line 'twixt Jaffa and Jerusalem.
Scheme | AABBCD EEAACD XFFGGCD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01001010101010101 001010101110101 110101010101101 1101100010101 110110101001101 011111111000100 011101101011111 01110110110101 010111010111011 0101110101010101 1100110111110101 010101111000100 011101111101110 1 11111001101010 1101111011001 110110110100 011011110101 111010111000100 |
Closest metre | Iambic octameter |
Characters | 1,155 |
Words | 193 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 7 |
Lines Amount | 19 |
Letters per line (avg) | 48 |
Words per line (avg) | 10 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 304 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 62 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 59 sec read
- 73 Views
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"The jaffa and jerusalem railway" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/13079/the-jaffa-and-jerusalem-railway>.
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