Analysis of Wattle and Myrtle



Gold of the tangled wilderness of wattle,
   Break in the lone green hollows of the hills,
Flame on the iron headlands of the ocean,
   Gleam on the margin of the hurrying rills.

Come with thy saffron diadem and scatter
   Odours of Araby that haunt the air,
Queen of our woodland, rival of the roses,
   Spring in the yellow tresses of thy hair.

Surely the old gods, dwellers on Olympus,
   Under thy shining loveliness have strayed,
Crowned with thy clusters, magical Apollo,
   Pan with his reedy music may have played.

Surely within thy fastness, Aphrodite,
   She of the sea-ways, fallen from above,
Wandered beneath thy canopy of blossom,
   Nothing disdainful of a mortal's love.

Aye, and Her sweet breath lingers on the wattle,
   Aye, and Her myrtle dominates the glade,
And with a deep and perilous enchantment
   Melts in the heart of lover and of maid.


Scheme ABXB XCXC XDXD XEXE ADXD
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 11010100110 1001110101 1101011010 11010101001 1111010010 1111101 11101101010 1001010111 10011101010 10110111 11110100010 1111010111 1001110010 1101110101 10011100110 100101011 10011101010 100101001 01010100010 1001110011
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 872
Words 147
Sentences 6
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 33
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 133
Words per stanza (avg) 29
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

44 sec read
67

James Lister Cuthbertson

James Lister Cuthbertson 8 May 1851 - 18 January 1910 was a Scottish-Australian poet and schoolteacher more…

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