Analysis of A Chantey of Labor's Lost
Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis 1876 (Auburn) – 1938 (Melbourne)
There on the quay sobbed Bones, A.B.,
And he took me by the hand.
Says he to me, 'I've quit the sea
An' I'm huntin' a berth on land.
‘Er doom ‘as come; an' the days o' rum,
Salt-‘orse an' tar is over;
For these is the days of the popinjays
An' the end of the deep-sea rover
Oh,
Them tough ole, rough ole, rollicking lads
The shell-back, deep-sea rover.
'They've finished with me,' says Bones, A.B.,
'For they've finished with seamanship.
What they're shippin' of late is a milliner's mate
With a housemaid's mop on the ‘ip.
But ask ‘im the rig of a barque or a brig,
Or the toons of the chanteys sung
By a buck he-male in the days of sail
When me an' me mates was young
Oh,
Them mad ole, bad ole, rollicking days
When mates an' the world was young.
'Before ‘e was born I'd rounded the Horn
Ten times in ships o' sail,
Close-reefed an' fast in the bellerin' blast
Of the mother-in-law of a gale.
Bare-decked I been, an' wrecked I been,
Mate-hazed, marooned, shanghai-ed.
But shiver me gob, I knoo me job
In the days when the seas was wide
Oh,
Them reckless, feckless, rollicking days
When faith and the seas was wide.
'So I'm leavin' the sea,' says Bones, A.B.,
'For the sea don't need me now.
An' I'm shapin' a course to valet a ‘orse
Or coddle a milkin' cow.
All that they asks of shipboard tasks
Is a dood of a doll's-eye weaver;
An' I'm missin' ‘em bad; them mates I ‘ad
So lovin' the sea they leave ‘er
Oh,
Them tearin', swearin', devil-may-carin',
Lovable lads wot leave ‘er.'
Scheme | abcbxdcdExd afxfxghgEig xhxhjxxkEik alclxdxdEjd |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101111 0111101 11111101 1110111 011110111 1111110 11101101 101101110 1 111111001 0111110 11011111 111011 111111011 1011101 11101101101 1011011 1011100111 1111111 1 111111001 1110111 0111111001 110111 11110011 101001101 11111111 1101111 110111111 00110111 1 110101001 1100111 11101111 1011111 1110110101 110011 1111111 101101110 111111111 11001110 1 11110110 1001110 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,473 |
Words | 290 |
Sentences | 19 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 11, 11, 11, 11 |
Lines Amount | 44 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 269 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 71 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:30 min read
- 63 Views
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"A Chantey of Labor's Lost" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/6123/a-chantey-of-labor%27s-lost>.
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