Analysis of Clancy of the Overflow
Andrew Barton Paterson 1864 (Orange, New South Wales) – 1941 (Sydney, New South Wales)
Clancy of the Overflow ...
I had written him a letter which I had, for want of better
Knowledge, sent to where I met him down the Lachlan, years ago,
He was shearing when I knew him, so I sent the letter to him,
Just "on spec", addressed as follows, "Clancy, of The Overflow".
And an answer came directed in a writing unexpected,
(And I think the same was written with a thumb-nail dipped in tar)
Twas his shearing mate who wrote it, and verbatim I will quote it:
"Clancy's gone to Queensland droving, and we don't know where he are."
In my wild erratic fancy visions come to me of Clancy
Gone a-droving "down the Cooper" where the Western drovers go;
As the stock are slowly stringing, Clancy rides behind them singing,
For the drover's life has pleasures that the townsfolk never know.
And the bush hath friends to meet him, and their kindly voices greet him
In the murmur of the breezes and the river on its bars,
And he sees the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended,
And at night the wond'rous glory of the everlasting stars.
I am sitting in my dingy little office, where a stingy
Ray of sunlight struggles feebly down between the houses tall,
And the foetid air and gritty of the dusty, dirty city
Through the open window floating, spreads its foulness over all
And in place of lowing cattle, I can hear the fiendish rattle
Of the tramways and the buses making hurry down the street,
And the language uninviting of the gutter children fighting,
Comes fitfully and faintly through the ceaseless tramp of feet.
And the hurrying people daunt me, and their pallid faces haunt me
As they shoulder one another in their rush and nervous haste,
With their eager eyes and greedy, and their stunted forms and weedy,
For townsfolk have no time to grow, they have no time to waste.
And I somehow rather fancy that I'd like to change with Clancy,
Like to take a turn at droving where the seasons come and go,
While he faced the round eternal of the cash-book and the journal --
But I doubt he'd suit the office, Clancy, of "The Overflow".
Scheme | A XABAXCXC DAEA BFXF DGDG HIEI DJDJ DAHA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 101010 1110101011111110 101111111010101 1110111111101011 11101110101010 011010100010010 011011101011101 1110111100101111 1011110111111 0110101010111110 1011010101011 1011101010101110 1011110101101 0011111101101011 001010100010111 011010101011010 0110110100101 1110011010101010 11110101010101 001101010101010 101010101110101 0011101011101010 10100101010101 001001010101010 11000101010111 00100101101101011 111010100110101 1110101001101010 1111111111111 011101011111110 11101111010101 1110101010110010 11111010101010 |
Closest metre | Iambic octameter |
Characters | 2,062 |
Words | 376 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 8, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 33 |
Letters per line (avg) | 48 |
Words per line (avg) | 11 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 200 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 47 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 19, 2023
- 1:54 min read
- 207 Views
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