Analysis of A Psalm Of Resignation
Joseph Furphy 1843 (Yering, Victoria) – 1912 (Claremont)
In spite of his imposing plea,
A freeman whom the truth makes free
Is often fairly up a tree,
And marvels why it should be thus.
Then reasoning in his tin-pot way
That honesty can never pay,
He loses faith, as well he may;
Yet he has simply Miss'd the 'Bus.
Concerning noodles who profess
By moral rules to gauge success:
Their thinking tackle's in a mess,
And they are wrong to Tartarus.
Don't say the worthiest lead the van.
That gag is deader than Queen Anne.
If it were straight, no honest man
Need grieve that he had Miss'd the 'Bus.
All are alike in Satan's grip,
If we accept your Shakespeare's tip,
Who hints, per Hamlet, that the whip
Is earned by every one of us.
Which is absurd (as Euclid says),
For all have good and evil traits,
Though some go smoothly all their days,
And some are doom'd to Miss the 'Bus.
Even the Yiddish Sage confess'd
He had to give this problem best,
Namely, to find desert express'd
In terms of Need and Overplus.
He saw not damper to the wise,
Nor gonce to men of enterprise,
But Buckley's prospect of a rise
For anyone who Miss'd the 'Bus.
What agencies manipulate
This economic drafting-gate
Through which we pass to find our fate,
It would be futile to discuss;
But any man with half an eye
Can see that mysteries underlie
The great 'Whaffor'? — the age-long, 'Why'? —
Required by those who Miss the 'Bus.
Some swell-coves, narrow'd by their luck,
In Evolution's rut are stuck,
Like that wool-bearing reptile-duck
Which bushmen term the platterpuss;
Whilst in our class we often find
A stubborn attitude of mind
Attending the demnition grind
Dealt out to those who Miss the 'Bus.
'Read Samuel Smiles, you dreaming flats!'
Say thrift-apostles, through their hats;
But wearily we answer, 'Rats!
It's not worth while to make a fuss,
Preach us no Self-made Merchant's creed —
Columbia's Curse — which holds, indeed,
That we should loot our fellow-weed,
And help him but to Miss the 'Bus.'
Again, we could 'arise! awake!'
And whoop with 40-devil, brake;
But no improvement should we make,
No more than doth the hairy Russ.
If we decline to act the goat,
But sanely think, resolve, and VOTE,
Then doubtless we shall keep afloat,
And Johnny need not Miss the 'Bus.
This seems to summarise our case.
I hope we carry it with grace,
Acknowledging in Fate's embrace
The nelson of an octopus.
And when the Last Conveyance comes,
Neither the swell who pots the plums,
Nor we who fossick round for crumbs,
Shall be allowed to Miss the 'Bus.
Scheme | AAABCCCB DDDBEEEB FFFBXXXB GGGBHHHB IIIBJJJB KKKBLLLB MMMBNNNB OOOBPPPB QQQXRRRB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01110101 01010111 11010101 01011111 110001111 11001101 11011111 11110101 01010101 11011101 1101001 011111 110100101 11110111 11011101 11111101 1101011 1101111 11110101 111100111 11011101 11110101 11110111 01111101 10010101 11111101 10111001 011101 11110101 1111110 1110101 1101101 1100010 1010101 111111101 11110101 11011111 11110001 0110111 010111101 11110111 01111 11110101 110101 101011101 0101011 010011 11111101 11011101 11010111 11001101 11111101 11111101 010011101 111110101 01111101 01110101 011101 11010111 11110101 11011101 1110101 11011101 01011101 1111101 11110111 01000101 0101110 01010101 10011101 1111111 11011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,482 |
Words | 449 |
Sentences | 25 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 72 |
Letters per line (avg) | 26 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 211 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 49 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:19 min read
- 129 Views
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"A Psalm Of Resignation" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/24514/a-psalm-of-resignation>.
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