Analysis of The Three Kings
The East is dead and the West is done, and again our course lies thus
South-east by Fate and the Rising Sun where the Three Kings wait for us.
When our hearts are young and the world is wide, and the heights seem grand to climb—
We are off and away to the Sydney-side; but the Three Kings bide their time.
‘I’ve been to the West,’ the digger said: he was bearded, bronzed and old;
Ah, the smothering curse of the East is wool, and the curse of the West is gold.
I went to the West in the golden boom, with Hope and a life-long mate,
‘They sleep in the sand by the Boulder Soak, and long may the Three Kings wait.’
‘I’ve had my fling on the Sydney-side,’ said a blacksheep to the sea,
Let the young fool learn when he can’t be taught: I’ve learnt what’s good for me.’
And he gazed ahead on the sea-line dim—grown dim in his softened eyes—
With a pain in his heart that was good for him—as he saw the Three Kings rise.
A pale girl sits on the foc’sle head—she is back, Three Kings! so soon;
But it seems to her like a life-time dead since she fled with him ‘saloon.’
There is refuge still in the old folks’ arms for the child that loved too well;
They will hide her shame on the Southern farm—and the Three Kings will not tell.
’Twas a restless heart on the tide of life, and a false star in the skies
That led me on to the deadly strife where the Southern London lies;
But I dream in peace of a home for me, by a glorious southern sound,
As the sunset fades from a moonlit sea, and the Three Kings show us round.
Our hearts are young and the old hearts old, and life, on the farms is slow,
And away in the world there is fame and gold—and the Three Kings watch us go.
Our heads seem wise and the world seems wide, and its heights are ours to climb,
So it’s off and away in our youthful pride—but the Three Kings bide our time.
Scheme | AABBCCDD EEFF GGHH FFII JJBB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01110011100110111 1111001011011111 110111001110011111 111001101011011111 1110101011110101 1010011011100110111 11101001011100111 11001101010110111 111110101101101 1011111111110111 01101101111101101 101011111111110111 011110111111111 11110101111111101 11101001111011111 11101101010011111 10101101110011001 1111101011010101 111011011110100101 101110110011111 10111001110110111 001001111010011111 101110011101111011 11100101010110111101 |
Characters | 1,867 |
Words | 371 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 58 |
Words per line (avg) | 15 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 278 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 73 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 08, 2023
- 1:51 min read
- 48 Views
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"The Three Kings" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18119/the-three-kings>.
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