Analysis of Ballad of Captious Critics
Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis 1876 (Auburn) – 1938 (Melbourne)
Stuffed with tradition and trammels of yore,
Cramped in their studies, they sneer and scold
At the strange, new passions young hearts would pour
Thro' a sunlit land, and a tale unfold
Of youth's ambition - new-minted gold
Fresh from life's furnace, all aglow
With none of its worth are their hearts cajoled,
If it waken no echo of things they know.
Their minds close cluttered with olden lore,
Their praise for the new is charity doled;
Their memories, clogged with a moss-grown store
Of dead men's wisdom, naught also may hold,
The flight of an eaglet, overhold,
Is an impudent thing, so their judgements go;
And the song of a bush bird leaves them cold,
If it wakes no echo of things they know.
Songs have sprung from this virgin shore,
Tales that are turned from an unworn mould,
These be but follies that grieve them sore
Rhymes the old troubadours have not trolled.
Themes must be borrowed from urn of old;
For originality irks them so,
And the voice of the bush must be controlled,
If it wakes no echo of things they know.
Prints - aye, and reprints, tales retold.
Shadows - for these do their plaudits grow;
But the bard stays dumb, and the book unsold
If it waken no echo of things they know.
Scheme | ababbcbC ababbcbC ababbcbC bcbC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Ballade |
Metre | 110100111 101101101 1011101111 101100101 110101101 11110101 1111111101 11101101111 111101101 1110111001 1100110111 1111011011 011111 111111101 0011011111 1111101111 11111101 11111111 111101111 1011111 11111111 100100111 0011011101 1111101111 1100111 11111101 1011100101 11101101111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,208 |
Words | 222 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 4 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 236 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 55 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:07 min read
- 68 Views
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"Ballad of Captious Critics" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/6209/ballad-of-captious-critics>.
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