Analysis of The Hidden City
Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis 1876 (Auburn) – 1938 (Melbourne)
It was the schooner Desperate
That sailed the southern sea,
And the skipper had brought his little daughter
To our centenary.
Blue were her eyes and plucked her brow,
Where she wore a golden curl.
Yet, 'spite her looks, she was somehow
A shrewd, observant girl.
But and spake an old sailor
Who had been that way before
'I pray don't land at yonder port
Lest your girl count it a bore.
Last year the town had a handsome street,
This year no street we see.'
'Why?' asked the skipper. 'Poles,' said the tar.
And a sneering laugh laughed he.
For an alderman had spoken,
Who had known the ropes long since,
And he said, 'Where are them sticks an' rag
We had for that other Prince.
Let's stick 'em up in the street again.'
Said the mayor, 'Don't be a quince.
We'll have some new bright painted ones;
And let the aesthetes wince.'
'Father,' the skipper's daughter cried
'No fair city I see.'
'It is behind them decorations, lass
Them candy sticks you see.'
'But, father, why do they stand there,
All orange smeared and red,
Like garish clowns in a stately street?'
'Search me,' the skipper said.
'Oh, father! What are those nightmare things,
Those gadgets brightly lit?
Let us away on urgent wings,
Or I fear I'll have a fit.'
'Courage, my child,' the skipper said.
Curb your aesthetic sense,
And close your eyes and cover your head,
And I shall bear you hence.
'Come hither, come hither, my little daughter,
And do not tremble so.'
He wrapped her up in his seaman's coat.
'Come,' said he, 'let us go
Out where no poles or pylons are,
And no centenary,
To a scene that no man's hand may mar.'
And he steered for the open sea.
Scheme | ABCBDEDE CFXFGBHB XIXIXIXI XBXBXJGJ KAKAJLJL CMXMHBHB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101010 110101 00101111010 110100 10010101 1110101 1101111 010101 1011110 1111101 11111101 1111101 110110101 111111 110101101 0010111 11100110 1110111 011111111 1111101 111100101 10101101 11111101 010101 10010101 111011 110110101 110111 11011111 110101 110100101 110101 11011111 110101 11011101 1111101 10110101 110101 011101011 011111 11011011010 011101 110101101 111111 1111111 01100 101111111 01110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,584 |
Words | 316 |
Sentences | 27 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 203 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 50 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:32 min read
- 31 Views
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"The Hidden City" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/6668/the-hidden-city>.
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