Analysis of Mustering Song
Andrew Barton Paterson 1864 (Orange, New South Wales) – 1941 (Sydney, New South Wales)
The boss last night in the hut did say
"We start to muster at break of day;
So be up first thing, and don't be slow;
Saddle your horses and off you go."
So early in the morning, so early in the morning,
So early in the morning, before the break of day.
Such a night in the yard there never was seen
(The horses were fat and the grass was green):
Bursting of girths and slipping of packs
As the stockmen saddled the fastest hacks.
Across the plain we jog along
Over gully, swamp, and billabong;
We dropp on a mob pretty lively, too
We round 'em up and give 'em a slue.
Now the scrub grows thick and the cattle are wild,
A regular caution to this 'ere child
A new chum man on an old chum horse,
Who sails through the scrub as a matter of course.
I was close up stuck in a rotten bog;
I got a buster jumping a log;
I found this scouting rather hot,
So I joined the niggers with the lot we'd got.
A long-haired shepherd we chanced to meet
With a water bag, billy, and dog complete;
He came too close to a knocked up steer,
Who up a sapling made him clear.
Now on every side we faintly hear
The crack of the stockwhip drawing near;
To the camp the cattle soon converge,
As from the thick scrub they emerge.
We hastily comfort the inner man
With the warm contents of the billy can;
The beef and damper are passed about
Before we tackle the cutting out.
We're at it now—that bally calf
Would surely make a sick man laugh;
The silly fool can't take a joke;
I hope some day in the drought he'll croak.
We've 'em now—the cows and calves
(Things here are never done by halves):
Strangers, workers, and milkers, too,
Of scrubbers also not a few.
It's getting late, we'd better push;
'Tis a good long way across the bush,
And the mob to drive are middling hard;
I do not think we'll reach the yard.
Scheme | AABB CADDEE XCFB GGHHXXII JJKKXKLL MMNN OOPP QQFF RRSS |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 011100111 111101111 111110111 101100111 11000101100010 1100010010111 10100111011 0100100111 101101011 101100101 01011101 1010101 1110110101 111101101 10111001011 0100101111 011111111 11101101011 1111100101 110101001 11110101 11101010111 011101111 10101100101 111110111 11010111 1110011101 01101101 101010101 11011101 1100100101 1011010101 010101101 011100101 11111101 11010111 01011101 111100111 1110101 11110111 1010011 11010101 11011101 101110101 0011111001 11111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,752 |
Words | 354 |
Sentences | 13 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 6, 4, 8, 8, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 46 |
Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 152 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 39 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:48 min read
- 88 Views
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"Mustering Song" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/2556/mustering-song>.
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