Analysis of The Christmas Beetle

Leon Gellert 1892 (Australia) – 1977



When Christmas comes the Christmas heat'll
bring once more the Christmas Beetle
The first inflammatory breeze'll
set him buzzing like a diesel.
Hear him open up his throttle
as he hums above the wattle!
Hear him zoom, and snarl and rattle
Like a fighter plane in battle!
Watch him dive to sink and settle-
Folding up his wings of metal -
Cutting off the engines sound
as quietly as he comes to ground.
Then watch some sparrows, frail and lowly,
Strike him swiftly, rend him wholly.


Scheme AAAAAAAAAABBAA
Poetic Form
Metre 11010101 11101010 0101001 11101010 11101110 11101010 11101010 10101010 11111010 10111110 1010101 110011111 111101010 11101110
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 476
Words 88
Sentences 6
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 383
Words per stanza (avg) 86
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

27 sec read
75

Leon Gellert

Leon Maxwell Gellert was an Australian poet. He was born in Walkerville, a suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. He was subjected to bullying by his father, a Methodist of Hungarian extraction, to which he reacted by learning self-defence at the YMCA. After an education at Adelaide High School, he embarked on a teaching career; first as a student-teacher at Unley High School then at the University of Adelaide's Teacher Training College. He enlisted with the Australian Imperial Forces 10th Battalion within weeks of the outbreak of the Great War and sailed for Cairo on 22 October 1914. He landed at Ari Burnu Beach, Gallipoli on 25 April 1915, was wounded and repatriated as medically unfit in June 1916. He attempted to re-enlist but was soon found out. He returned to teaching at Norwood Public School. During periods of inactivity he had been indulging his appetite for writing poetry. Songs of a Campaign was his first published book of verse, and was favourably reviewed by The Bulletin. Angus & Robertson soon published a new edition, illustrated by Norman Lindsay. His second, The Isle of San, also illustrated by Lindsay, was not so well received however. more…

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