Analysis of May Day
Bernard O'Dowd 1866 (Beaufort) – 1953
Come Jack, our place is with the ruck
On the open road today,
Not with the tepid "footpath sneak"
Or with the wise who stop away.
A straggling, tame procession, perhaps,
A butt for burgess scorn;
Its flags are ragged sentiments,
And its music's still unborn.
Though none respectable are here,
And trim officials ban,
Our duty, Jack, is not with them,
But here with Hope and Man.
Nor have we cause for shame, who see,
In the glory-lighted street,
The Old Brigade of Liberty
The partial ranks complete.
There's Shelley, Byron, arm in arm,
With Schiller, Uhland, near:
While cheek by jowl with anarch "crank"
See young Camille appear.
Marat keeps line with Spartacus,
Lone Dantes grimly stalk;
The meagre Knights of Labour "push"
With the Twelve Apostles walk.
Bakunin, Marx, Lassalle are there,
Grey Whitman's with the Greeks,
Dutch "Beggar" chums with Ironside,
Or to Bastille hero speaks.
Valliant and Brutus, Vane, Kossuth,
Find here a fitting tryst;
That Yarra-banker far ahead
Is keeping step with Christ.
Before, behind, around, surge on
Those unknown Great, whose yeast,
Impermeant, ensures result,
Tho' Hope's own song had ceased.
With flowers today the sky's festooned;
To yearning hosts a-sigh
On winds perfumed with memories
May's fair-winged forecasts fly.
No longer prostitute to Wealth,
amoung the aery show
The Lyric Muse accompanies
The Marseillaise below.
And how the gales of Freedom move,
Like wildfire's leap and fall,
Or north wind's through autumnal grass,
The red flags over all.
Yes! Ther's our place, whatever flames
Those nearing clouds display,
Tho' much they mean to footpath sneaks
And the wise who stop away.
Scheme | XAXA XBXB XCXC DEDE XFXF XGXG XHXH XXXX XIXI XJKJ XLKL XMXM XAHA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (92%) |
Metre | 111011101 1010101 1101011 11011101 01101001 011101 11110100 0110111 11010011 010101 101011111 111101 11111111 0010101 01011100 010101 11010101 110101 1111111 110101 1111100 11101 011111 1010101 11111 110101 1101110 1110101 010010110 110101 1110101 110111 01010111 101111 10101 111111 11001011 110101 11011100 111011 1101011 1011 01010100 0101 01011101 11101 11110101 011101 11101101 110101 1111111 0011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,644 |
Words | 271 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 13 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 52 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 99 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 21 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:24 min read
- 82 Views
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"May Day" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/4280/may-day>.
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