Analysis of The Canadian Magpie



Mos' ev'ryman lak de robin
An' it's pleasan' for hear heem sing,
Affer de winter 's over
An' it 's comin' anoder spring.
De snow 's hardly off de mountain
An' it's cole too among de pine
But you know w'en he sing, de sout' win'
Is crowdin' heem close behin' .

An' mebbe you hear de grosbec
Sittin' above de nes'-
An' you see by de way he 's goin'
De ole man 's doin' hees bes'
Makin' de wife an' baby
Happy as dey can be-
An' proud he was come de fader
Such fine leetle familee.

De gouglou of course he 's nicer
Dan many bird dat fly,
Dunno w'at we do widout heem,
But offen I wonder w'y
He can't stay quiet a minute
Lak res' of de small oiseaux
An' finish de song he's startin'
Till whish! an' away he go!

Got not'ing to say agen dem,
De gouglou an' all de res'-
'Cept only dey lak de comfort,
An' come w'en it suit dem bes'-
For soon as de summer 's passin'
An' leaf is begin to fall-
You'll wálk t'roo de wood an' medder
An' never hear wan bird call.

But come wit' me on de winter
On place w'ere de beeg tree grow
De smoke of de log house chimley
Will tole you de way to go-
An' if you 're not too unlucky
De w'iskey jack dere you'll see
Flyin' aroun' de shaintee
An' dat was de bird for me.

You 'll mebbe not lak hees singin'
Dough it 's better dan not'ing too,
For affer he do hees bes', den
W'at more can poor Johnnie do?
It 's easy job sing on summer
De sam ' as de rossignol-
But out of door on de winter
Jus' try youse'f -dat 's all.

See heem dere, now he's comin'
Hoppin' an' hoppin' aroun'
W'en we start on de morning early
For work till de sun go down-
T'row heem hees piece of breakfas'
An' hear heem say 'merci bien',
For he's fond on de pork, ba golly!
Sam ' as de Canayen.

De noise of de axe don't scare heem
He stay wit' us all de day,
An' w'en he was feelin' lak' it
Ride home wit' de horse an' sleigh.
Den affer we reach de shaintee
He 's waitin' to see us back
Jompin' upon de log dere
Good leetle w'iskey lack!

So here 's to de bird of winter
Wearin' de coonskin coat,
W'enever it 's bird election
You bet he can get ma vote-
Dat 's way I be feel about it,
Voyageurs let her go today!
W'iskey jack, get ready, we drink you
Toujours à vot' bonne santé!
Baptême!


Scheme ABCBAXXA BDXEFFCG CGHXIDAJ HXXEAGCG CJGJFFIF AKXKCGCG AAFXDXFA HLMLINCN COAOMLKXF
Poetic Form
Metre 11101110 1111111 1110110 111111 111101110 11110111 111100111111 11111 111111 10111 111111111 1111111 1011110 101111 11111110 1111 11111110 110111 0110011111 1101101001 11110010 111111 1101111 1110111 1111111 111111 11011110 1110011111 11111011 1110111 1100111111 1101111 11111110 1110011111 1111111 1111111 111111010 111111 1111 1111111 1111111 111101111 1111111 1001111101 111011110 1111100 11111110 1111111 111111 1111 100111111010 1111111 1111111 111111 111111110 1111 11111111 1111111 1100111111 1111111 111111 1111111 101111 1111 111111110 1111 1111010 1111111 111111011 110101 11110111 1111 11
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 2,126
Words 453
Sentences 17
Stanzas 9
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 9
Lines Amount 73
Letters per line (avg) 22
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 175
Words per stanza (avg) 50
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

2:24 min read
27

William Henry Drummond

William Henry Drummond April 13 1854 April 6 1907 was an Irish-born Canadian poet He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature of the United Kingdom in 1898 and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1899 more…

All William Henry Drummond poems | William Henry Drummond Books

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