Analysis of Ballade Of The Southern Cross
Andrew Lang 1844 (Selkirk, Scottish Borders) – 1912 (Banchory)
Fair islands of the silver fleece,
Hoards of unsunned, uncounted gold,
Whose havens are the haunts of Peace,
Whose boys are in our quarrel bold;
OUR bolt is shot, our tale is told,
Our ship of state in storms may toss,
But ye are young if we are old,
Ye Islands of the Southern Cross!
Ay, WE must dwindle and decrease,
Such fates the ruthless years unfold;
And yet we shall not wholly cease,
We shall not perish unconsoled;
Nay, still shall Freedom keep her hold
Within the sea's inviolate fosse,
And boast her sons of English mould,
Ye Islands of the Southern Cross!
All empires tumble--Rome and Greece -
Their swords are rust, their altars cold!
For us, the Children of the Seas,
Who ruled where'er the waves have rolled,
For us, in Fortune's books enscrolled,
I read no runes of hopeless loss;
Nor--while YE last--our knell is tolled,
Ye Islands of the Southern Cross!
Britannia, when thy hearth's a-cold,
When o'er thy grave has grown the moss,
Still Rule Australia shall be trolled
In Islands of the Southern Cross!
Scheme | ababbcbC ababbxbC abxbbcbC bcbc |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11010101 111101 11010111 111010101 1011110111 101110111 11111111 11010101 11110001 11010101 01111101 111101 11110101 010101001 01011101 11010101 110010101 11111101 11010101 11100111 1101011 11111101 111110111 11010101 010011101 110111101 11010111 01010101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,007 |
Words | 184 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 4 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 199 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 45 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 56 sec read
- 120 Views
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"Ballade Of The Southern Cross" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 11 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/2767/ballade-of-the-southern-cross>.
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