Analysis of The Griefs of Ancient Gosh
Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis 1876 (Auburn) – 1938 (Melbourne)
I happened in Gosh on an ancient day,
In the land of Glugs far, far away
Where the skies are green and the grass is pink
And the citizens rarely troubl'd to think.
Each had a vote; they were proud of that;
But they left all else to the Bureaucrat.
Still, of course, such folly never could be
In a civilised land this year A.D.
A junior clerk in Department A
Sent a requisition in one day
For a mousetrap to Department B.
This came to the ears of Department C,
Whose head said, 'Just a moment please.
You control the traps, but we the cheese.'
Then Department D chipped in in a trice
And cried, 'Checkmate! We control the mice.'
Then Departments E, F, G, H, I
Became involved, and the talk ran high,
Till the Livestock Branch got dragged in, too,
And the Vermin Board, and I don't know who
Besides, till the mousetrap matter grew
From a mild dispute 'mid a trifling few
To a Public Question so immense
That a tax was levied to meet expense.
Well, time rolled on, as it ever has rolled
And the junior clerk, now bald and old,
Received a pink form one fine day
Which said, 'One trap, mouse. Passed O.K.'
But he answered, this impatient chap,
Grown peevish, too, 'Keep your blinkin' trap!
For a trap I made from an old jam tin
Long since; and I caught my mouse therein.'
So an issue rose of a different sort,
And they sued the clerk in the State High Court
Which sat so long and talked such bosh
That a fierce Dictator loomed in Gosh;
And he took one long, deep, shuddering breath
And condemned that junior clerk to death
And then, when they sought the man, they found
He had been some twelve years underground.
Such is the tale. But, understand
It happened in Gosh - a backward land
Inhabited then by a race called Glugs,
Free-born, with a vote, but mostly mugs
For, of course, such nonsense never could be
In a modern, model Democracy
Like ours. Things never could happen so.
Absurd!... Or could they? ...Oh, I don't know.
Scheme | AABBCCDX XADDEEFF GGHHHHII JJAAKKLL MMNNOOPP QQEXDDRR |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1100111101 001111101 1011100111 00100101011 110110111 111111010 1111101011 0011111 010100100 10010011 10110101 1110110101 11110101 101011101 1010110001 01110101 101011111 010100111 10111101 0010101111 01101101 1010110101 101010101 1011101101 1111111011 001011101 01011111 11111111 111010101 11011111 1011111111 110111101 11101101001 0110100111 11110111 101010101 0111111001 001110111 011110111 11111110 1101101 110010101 0100110111 111011101 1111101011 0010100100 1101101101 011111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,885 |
Words | 370 |
Sentences | 24 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 245 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 61 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:50 min read
- 124 Views
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"The Griefs of Ancient Gosh" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/6661/the-griefs-of-ancient-gosh>.
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