Analysis of Our Town Awakes
Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis 1876 (Auburn) – 1938 (Melbourne)
Six o'clock. From the railway yard
The engine toots; careering hard,
A milk-cart rattles by and stops;
A magpie calls from the gum-tree tops;
The pub 'boots', sweeping out the bar,
Waves to the early service-car,
While the town's chief toper waits outside,
Woe-begone and bleary-eyed;
Two cows go lowing down the way;
A rooster crows. It's another day.
Eight o'clock. The tradesmen come
Shop-boys whistling, masters glum,
To stand at doors and stretch and yawn;
Fronts are swept and blinds are drawn;
The washerwoman, Mrs Dubbs,
Slip-slops off to her taps and tubs,
Washing clothes for other folk;
The cheery barber cracks a joke,
But the day's first client fails to laugh -
Fresh from a tiff from his better half.
Nine o'clock. Precise and neat,
Miss Miggs comes mincing down the street,
The town's dressmaker, pert and prim,
Sly eyes, from under her hat's brim,
Gathering gossip by the way:
The same old goings-on today -
That grocer off for his morning nip;
The chemist, too, that married rip,
Flirting again with the girl next door.
Miss Miggs gleans twenty tales to store.
Ten o'clock. The town grows brisk;
Down the main street motors whisk;
Jinkers, carts and farmers' drays
Stop at shops and go their ways;
In soleman talk with the town surveyor
Comes Mr Mullinger, our mayor,
Pausing at doors for a friendly chat;
He bows, he smiles, he lifts his hat…
Now a brisker rush and a sudden din:
'That's her!' And the city train comes in.
Scheme | AABBCCDDEE FFGGHHIIJJ KKLLEEMMNN OOBXPPQQRR |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (30%) Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 1011011 01010101 01110101 01110111 01110101 11010101 10111111 110101 11110101 010110101 1010101 1110101 11110101 1110111 01101 11110101 1011101 01010101 101110111 110111101 1010101 11110101 0110101 11110011 10010101 01110101 110111101 01011101 100110111 11110111 1010111 1011101 110101 1110111 011101010 11011010 101110101 11111111 1010100101 100010110 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,417 |
Words | 255 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 10, 10, 10, 10 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 278 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 64 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 17, 2023
- 1:19 min read
- 130 Views
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"Our Town Awakes" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 2 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/6514/our-town-awakes>.
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