Analysis of Worked-Out Mine
Edward George Dyson 1865 (Ballarat, Victoria) – 1931 (Saint Kilda, Melbourne, Victoria)
On summer nights when moonbeams flow
And glisten o’er the high, white tips,
And winds make lamentation low,
As through the ribs of shattered ships,
And steal about the broken brace
Where pendant timbers swing and moan,
And flitting bats give aimless chase,
Who dares to seek the mine alone?
The shrinking bush with sable rims
A skeleton forlorn and bowed,
With pipe-clay white about its limbs
And at its feet a tattered shroud;
And ghostly figures lurk and groan,
Shrill whispers sound from ghostly lips,
And ghostly footsteps start the stone
That clatters sharply down the tips.
The engine-house is dark and still,
The life that raged within has fled;
Like open graves the boilers chill
That once with glowing fires were red;
Above the shaft in measured space
A rotted rope swings to and fro,
Whilst o’er the plat and on the brace
The silent shadows come and go.
And there below, in chambers dread
Where darkness like a fungus clings,
Are lingering still the old mine’s dead—
Bend o’er and hear their whisperings!
Up from the blackness sobs and sighs
Are flung with moans and muttered fears,
A low lament that never dies,
And ceaseless sound of falling tears.
My ears intent have heard their grief—
The fitful tones of Carter’s tongue,
The strong man crushed beneath the reef,
The groans of Panton, Praer, and Young,
And ‘Trucker Bill’ of Number Five,
Along the ruined workings roll;
For deep in every shoot and drive
This mine secretes a shackled soul.
Ah! woful mine, where wives have wept,
And mothers prayed in anxious pain,
And long, distracting vigil kept,
You yawn for victims now in vain!
Still to that god, whose shrine you were,
Is homage done in wild device;
Men hate you as the sepulchre
That stores their bloody sacrifice.
Scheme | ABABCDCD EFEFDBDB GHGHCACA HXHBIXIX JKJKLMLM NONOPQPQ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101111 01010111 01111 11011101 01010101 11010101 01011101 11110101 01011101 01000101 11110111 01110101 01010101 11011101 0101101 1110101 01011101 01110111 11010101 111101001 01010101 01011101 11010101 0101101 01010101 11010101 110010111 110111 11010101 11110101 01011101 01011101 11011111 01011101 01110101 01110101 01011101 01010101 110100101 1110101 1111111 01010101 01010101 11110101 11111110 11010101 111101 1111010 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,910 |
Words | 305 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 230 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 51 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:31 min read
- 57 Views
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"Worked-Out Mine" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/9629/worked-out-mine>.
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