Analysis of With The Quandongs
Roderic Quinn 1867 (Surry Hills, New South Wales) – 1949 (Darlinghurst, New South Wales)
IF you happen to visit the Western Plains
When the summer is young and green,
You can see the green of the quandong leaves
With the quandong fruit between.
The fruit is the size of a plum, perhaps,
And red as your own blood's hue;
And it falls to the ground at the touch of the wind
Like a drop of crimson dew.
The wide plains lie with half-shut eyes
At peace in a golden swoon,
And the lizards drink their full of rest
Abask in the drowsy noon.
There is only the whir of a wing, perchance,
To startle the sleeping lands;
But the quandong trees, all green and red,
Are a-twinkle with little hands.
Oh, many a tress has turned to grey,
And many a song grown mute
Since Rita and Meg and Trixie and I
Went gathering quandong fruit.
And there we were on the plains alone
In the hush of a drowsy air —
Rita and Meg with roguish eyes
And Trixie with wayward hair.
A far mirage of mingled sun and dream
Was born of the noontide sleep,
And the rifled fruit of the quandongs lay
At our feet in a ruddy heap.
I know that the quandong's burning fruit
Still reddens the drowsy air;
That Trixie is grown and sometime wed,
And Rita is grave and fair.
I know that Meg of the roguish eyes,
Though ten long years be sped,
Still plucks the fruit of the quandong trees
When the quandong fruit is red.
I know — and I know to my loss, alas! —
That I stand where the winds blow cold,
And search, with others, another tree
For its scanty fruit of gold.
Scheme | ABCBDEFEGHIHJKLKMNONPQGQRSMSNQLQGLTLUVWV |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (28%) Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 11101100101 10101101 111011011 101101 0110110101 0111111 011101101101 1011101 01111111 1100101 001011111 100101 11100110101 1100101 10111101 10101101 110011111 0100111 1100101001 110011 011010101 00110101 1001111 0101101 0101110101 111011 001011011 110100101 11101101 110101 11011011 0101101 11111011 111111 11011011 101111 1101111101 11110111 011100101 1110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,404 |
Words | 284 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 40 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,109 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 282 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:25 min read
- 67 Views
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"With The Quandongs" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/32996/with-the-quandongs>.
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