Analysis of The Goldfinch

Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis 1876 (Auburn) – 1938 (Melbourne)



When dandelions star the fields
Another alien singer, I,
Nursed upon England's flowery wealds,
Seeking no tithe of treasured yields,
dropp sudden from a summer sky
To where the spangled clearing spills
Its gold about your timbered hills.

A mite in splendid motley clad,
I mark the field, I know the hour
When choicest morsels may be had;
When blooms are gay, when days are glad,
And thistledown wafts in a shower
To dance and drift and disappear,
I, who was not, am with you here.

I cling beside the thistle head,
I dance about your cattle's feet,
I revel in the banquet spread
By many a blazing yellow bed,
And feast until I am replete;
Then seek the house roof's topmost tile
To linger yet a little while.

No ingrate I, no niggard churl
Tho' what I take you well may spare
Ere azure skies have grown to pearl,
With many a grace-note, many a skirl,
I pay gold coin for golden fare,
And profer an abundant fee
In long sweet bursts of melody.


Scheme ABAABCC DEDDEXX FGFFGHH HIXHIJJ
Poetic Form
Metre 1100101 010100101 101101001 10111101 11010101 11010101 1101111 01010101 110111010 11010111 11111111 0110010 1101001 11111111 11010101 1101111 11000101 110010101 01011101 1101111 11010101 1111101 11111111 11011111 1100111001 11111101 0110101 01111100
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 924
Words 177
Sentences 5
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 7, 7, 7, 7
Lines Amount 28
Letters per line (avg) 26
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 184
Words per stanza (avg) 44
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 21, 2023

54 sec read
59

Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis

Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis, better known as C. J. Dennis, was an Australian poet known for his humorous poems, especially "The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke", published in the early 20th century. Though Dennis's work is less well known today, his 1915 publication of The Sentimental Bloke sold 65,000 copies in its first year, and by 1917 he was the most prosperous poet in Australian history. Together with Banjo Paterson and Henry Lawson, both of whom he had collaborated with, he is often considered among Australia's three most famous poets. While attributed to Lawson by 1911, Dennis later claimed he himself was the 'laureate of the larrikin'. When he died at the age of 61, the Prime Minister of Australia Joseph Lyons suggested he was destined to be remembered as the 'Australian Robert Burns'. more…

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