Analysis of An Old Man Muses
Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis 1876 (Auburn) – 1938 (Melbourne)
Can it be I - this Hindenburg, deferring
To demagogues, catch phrases, lucky charms
And all this mummery about me stirring?
Can it be I, lord of high feats of arms,
Smiling complancence on a rabble's blunders,
Counting a mountebank amongst my peers
I, who commanded with the voice of thunders?
Ah, what a role betrays me with the years!
Can it be I - condoning, cavallering
This sorry paint-and-tinsel paladin.
This braggart upstart, raging, racketeering
Like some cheap western gangster 'muscling in,'
Apeing the arts in which I loomed a master:
Acting with arms as children play with toys:
Mouthing fierce phrases, pregannt with disaster,
To lure brief loyalty from brain-sick boys?
Can it be I who saw the vision splendid
Shaping before these ageing eyes of mine,
When half a world, before my day had eneded,
Hurtled its might against my stubborn Line?
The Line of Hindenburg! the natons raging
Before an avatar who reached the sky! ...
And now? - A hapless figurehead, fast ageing,
The mighty Hindenburg! Can this be I?
Strange trick of Fate ... And yet, sometimes I wonder,
While factions rage and puny tyrants bray,
If victory might yet be snatched for blunder
Till gloriously dawned against The Day!
If - To what end? Youth seeks in other fashion
It's destiny. 'Tis world-worn age that drools
Of glories gone ... Enough to veil compassion
With weary tolerance. Poor dupes! Poor fools!
Scheme | ABABCDCD AEAEFGFG HIHIAJAJ FKFKLBLX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111111010 110110101 011101110 1111111111 10110110 10010111 11010101110 1101011101 11110101 1101010100 11110010 11110101000 1010111010 1011110111 1011011010 1111001111 11111101010 100111111 1101011111 111011101 01110110 011101101 010101011 01011111 11110101110 1101010101 11001111110 1100010101 11111101010 1100111111 11010111010 1101001111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,375 |
Words | 238 |
Sentences | 21 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 273 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 61 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 15, 2023
- 1:11 min read
- 63 Views
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