Analysis of Gardeners Grouch
Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis 1876 (Auburn) – 1938 (Melbourne)
There's a looper caterpillar in my lupins,
There are weevils weaving strands about my stocks,
There are throngs of thieving thrips
On my seedlings and my slips,
And the hoppers hop around my hollyhocks.
While the aphis eats my early antirrhinums,
All oblivious to the dreadful damage done,
And the jassids, jazzing gaily
Round dead jonquils, jar me daily ....
Yet I'd thought to take up gardening 'just for fun.'
I have blown 'em with a bellows filled with sulphur;
I've assaulted 'em with arsenate of lead;
I have prayed a vengeful prayer
As I sprayed 'em with a sprayer;
But the cross-grained little cuses won't stay dead!
I have bathed 'em with enough benzole emulsion
And deadly drugs to dropp them in their tracks;
Then I vainly sought their slaughter
With a stong tobacco water ....
And I'd thought to take up gardening 'to relax.'
Now the strange, unlovely scent of lime-and-sulphur
Outvies the sweet bouquet of bud and bloom.
And the smell of Bordeaux mixture
On my person is a fixture;
So my wife won't let me in our drawing room.
Dark odors hang about herbaceous borders
Where I seek the stealthy sluglet after dark.
But my garden has undone me:
Even little children shun me ....
And I'd thought to take up gardening 'for a lark.'
Scheme | AAAAAABCCB DEXDEBADDA DFDDFAGCCG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (20%) |
Metre | 1010100011 11101010111 1111101 1110011 0010101110 10111101 101001010101 001110 1111110 111111100111 111110101110 101011111 1110101 11111010 1011101111 11111011010 0101111011 11101110 1010110 011111100101 1011111010 101011101 00110110 11101010 111111010101 11010101010 1110101101 11101011 10101011 011111100101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,220 |
Words | 221 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 10, 10, 10 |
Lines Amount | 30 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 323 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 73 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:07 min read
- 97 Views
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