Analysis of Ulmarra

Henry Kendall 1839 (Australia) – 1882 (Sydney)



Alone — alone!
With a heart like a stone,
She maketh her moan
At the feet of the trees,
With her face on her knees,
And her hair streaming over;
Wildly, and wildly, and wildly;
For she misses the tracks of her lover!
Do you hear her, Ulmarra?
Oh, where are the tracks of her lover?
Go by — go by!
They have told her a lie,
Who said he was nigh,
In the white-cedar glen —
In the camps of his men:
And she sitteth there weeping —
Weeping, and weeping, and weeping,
For the face of a warrior sleeping!
Do you hear her, Ulmarra?
Oh! where is her warrior sleeping?

A dream! a dream!
That they saw a bright gleam
Through the dusk boughs stream,
Where wild bees dwell,
And a tomahawk fell,
In moons which have faded;
Faded, and faded, and faded,
From woods where a chieftain lies shaded!
Do you hear her, Ulmarra?
Oh! where doth her chieftain lie shaded?

Bewail! bewail!
Who whispered a tale,
That they heard on the gale,
Through the dark and the cold,
The voice of the bold;
And a boomerang flying;
Flying, and flying, and flying?
Ah! her heart it is wasted with crying —
Do you hear her, Ulmarra?
Oh! her heart it is wasted with crying!


Scheme aaabbcdcCceeeffgggCg hhhiijjkCk dllmmgggCg
Poetic Form Etheree  (30%)
Metre 0101 101101 1101 101101 101101 0011010 10010010 1110011010 11101 111011010 1111 111001 11111 001101 001111 011110 10010010 1011010010 11101 111010010 0101 111011 10111 1111 00101 011110 10010010 111010110 11101 111010110 11 11001 111101 101001 01101 001010 10010010 1011110110 11101 1011110110
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 1,110
Words 220
Sentences 23
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 20, 10, 10
Lines Amount 40
Letters per line (avg) 21
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 285
Words per stanza (avg) 73
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:06 min read
180

Henry Kendall

Thomas Henry Kendall was a nineteenth-century Australian author and bush poet, who was particularly known for his poems and tales set in a natural environment setting. more…

All Henry Kendall poems | Henry Kendall Books

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