Analysis of Barta
Henry Lawson 1867 (Grenfell) – 1922 (Sydney)
Wide solemn eyes that question me,
Wee hand that pats my head—
Where only two have stroked before,
And both of them are dead.
‘Ah, poo-ah Daddy mine,’ she says,
With wondrous sympathy—
Oh, baby girl, you don’t know how
You break the heart in me!
Let friends and kinsfolk work their worst,
And the world say what it will,
Your baby arms go round my neck—
I’m your own Daddy still!
And you kiss me and I kiss you,
Fresh kisses frank and free—
Ah, baby girl, you don’t know how
You break the heart in me!
I dreamed when I was good that when
The snow showed in my hair,
A household angel in her teens
Would flit about my chair,
To comfort me as I grew old;
But that shall never be—
Ah, baby girl, you don’t know how
You break the heart in me!
But one shall love me while I live
And soothe my troubled head,
And never hear an unkind word
Of me when I am dead.
Her eyes shall light to hear my name
Howe’er disgraced it be—
Ah, baby girl, you don’t know how
You help the heart in me!
Scheme | abxbxacAxdxdxaCA xexexaCA xbxbxaCa |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11011101 111111 11011101 011111 11110111 110100 11011111 110101 1101111 0011111 11011111 111101 01110111 110101 11011111 110101 11111111 011011 0110001 110111 11011111 111101 11011111 110101 11111111 011101 01011011 111111 01111111 10111 11011111 110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 984 |
Words | 201 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 16, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 246 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 66 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:00 min read
- 87 Views
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"Barta" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/17742/barta>.
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