Analysis of Last Week

Andrew Barton Paterson 1864 (Orange, New South Wales) – 1941 (Sydney, New South Wales)



Oh, the new-chum went to the backblock run,
But he should have gone there last week.
He tramped ten miles with a loaded gun,
But of turkey of duck saw never a one,
For he should have been there last week,
They said,
There were flocks of 'em there last week.
He wended his way to a waterfall,
And he should have gone there last week.
He carried a camera, legs and all,
But the day was hot and the stream was small,
For he should have gone there last week,
They said,
They drowned a man there last week.

He went for a drive, and he made a start,
Which should have been made last week,
For the old horse died of a broken heart;
So he footed it home and he dragged the cart --
But the horse was all right last week,
They said,
He trotted a match last week.

So he asked all the bushies who came from afar
To visit the town last week
If the'd dine with him, and they said "Hurrah!"
But there wasn't a drop in the whisky jar --
You should have been here last week,
He said,
I drank it all up last week!


Scheme abaabCbdbddbCb ebeebCb fbxfbcb
Poetic Form
Metre 101111011 11111111 111110101 11101111001 11111111 11 10111111 11111010 01111111 1100100101 1011100111 11111111 11 1101111 1110101101 1111111 1011110101 11101101101 10111111 11 1100111 11110111101 1100111 1111101101 11100100101 1111111 11 1111111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,003
Words 207
Sentences 8
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 14, 7, 7
Lines Amount 28
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 251
Words per stanza (avg) 68
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:02 min read
94

Andrew Barton Paterson

Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson, was an Australian bush poet, journalist and author. He wrote many ballads and poems about Australian life, focusing particularly on the rural and outback areas, including the district around Binalong, New South Wales, where he spent much of his childhood. Paterson's more notable poems include "Clancy of the Overflow" (1889), "The Man from Snowy River" (1890) and "Waltzing Matilda" (1895), regarded widely as Australia's unofficial national anthem. more…

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