Analysis of Waltzing Matilda
Andrew Barton Paterson 1864 (Orange, New South Wales) – 1941 (Sydney, New South Wales)
OH! there once was a swagman camped in the Billabong,
Under the shade of a Coolabah tree;
And he sang as he looked at his old billy boiling,
“Who’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me.”
Who’ll come a-waltzing Matilda, my darling,
Who’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?
Waltzing Matilda and leading a water-bag—
Who’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?
Down came a jumbuck to drink at the water-hole,
Up jumped the swagman and grabbed him in glee;
And he sang as he put him away in his tucker-bag,
“You’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me!”
Down came the Squatter a-riding his thorough-bred;
Down came Policemen—one, two, and three.
”Whose is the jumbuck you’ve got in the tucker-bag?
You’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me.”
But the swagman, he up and he jumped in the water-hole,
Drowning himself by the Coolabah tree;
And his ghost may be heard as it sings in the Billabong,
“Who’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?”
Andrew Barton ‘Banjo’ Paterson
Scheme | abaB aBaBcbaB xbaB cbaB x |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111011001 10011011 0111111111010 1101001011 11010010110 1101001011 100100100101 1101001011 11011110101 110101101 01111110101101 1101001011 110100101101 110101101 11011100101 1101001011 1011101100101 10011011 011111111001 1101001011 10101100 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,025 |
Words | 166 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 8, 4, 4, 1 |
Lines Amount | 21 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 146 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 32 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 04, 2023
- 49 sec read
- 228 Views
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"Waltzing Matilda" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/2730/waltzing-matilda>.
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