Analysis of Burning Off
Dorothea Mackeller 1885 (Point Piper, Sydney) – 1968 (Randwick)
They're burning off at the Rampadells,
The tawny flames uprise,
With greedy licking around the trees;
The fierce breath sears our eyes.
From cores already grown furnace-hot -
The logs are well alight!
We fling more wood where the flameless heart
Is throbbing red and white.
The fire bites deep in that beating heart,
The creamy smoke-wreaths ooze
From cracks and knot-holes along the trunk
To melt in greys and blues.
The young horned moon has gone from the sky,
And night has settled down;
A red glare shows from the Rampadells,
Grim as a burning town.
Full seven fathoms above the rest
A tree stands, great and old,
A red-hot column whence fly the sparks,
One ceaseless shower of gold.
All hail the king of the fire before
He sway and crack and crash
To earth - for surely tomorrow's sun
Will see him white fine ash.
The king in his robe of falling stars,
No trace shall leave behind,
And where he stood with his silent court,
The wheat shall bow to the wind.
Scheme | AAAA XBCB CAXA XDAD XEAE XFXF AGXG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 1101101 010110 110100101 0111101 110101101 011101 11111011 110101 0101101101 010111 110110101 110101 011111101 011101 0111101 110101 110100101 011101 011101101 1101011 1101101001 110101 11110011 111111 010111101 111101 011111101 0111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 948 |
Words | 178 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 108 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 25 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 28, 2023
- 54 sec read
- 220 Views
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"Burning Off" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 9 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/8103/burning-off>.
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