Analysis of Are you the Cove?

Joseph Furphy 1843 (Yering, Victoria) – 1912 (Claremont)



“Are you the Cove?” he spoke the words
As swagmen only can;
The Squatter freezingly inquired,
“What do you mean, my man?”

“Are you the Cove?” his voice was stern,
His look was firm and keen;
Again the Squatter made reply,
"I don’t know what you mean."

“0! dash my rags! let’s have some sense –
You ain’t a fool, by Jove,
Gammon you dunno what I mean;
I mean – are you the Cove?’

‘Yes, I'm the Cove,” the Squatter said;
The Swagman answered, "Right,
I thought as much: show me some place
Where I can doss tonight."


Scheme XAXA XBXB XCBC XDXD
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 11011101 11101 0101010 111111 11011111 111101 01010101 111111 1111111 110111 10101111 111101 11010101 01101 11111111 111101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 539
Words 108
Sentences 9
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 23
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 93
Words per stanza (avg) 25
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 14, 2023

32 sec read
53

Joseph Furphy

Joseph Furphy is widely regarded as the "Father of the Australian novel". He mostly wrote under the pseudonym Tom Collins and is best known for his novel Such Is Life (1903), regarded as an Australian classic. more…

All Joseph Furphy poems | Joseph Furphy Books

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