Analysis of Reconstruction
Andrew Barton Paterson 1864 (Orange, New South Wales) – 1941 (Sydney, New South Wales)
So, the bank has bust it's boiler! And in six or seven year
It will pay me all my money back -- of course!
But the horse will perish waiting while the grass is germinating,
And I reckon I'll be something like the horse.
There's the ploughing to be finished and the ploughmen want their pay,
And I'd like to wire the fence and sink a tank;
But I own I'm fairly beat how I'm going to make ends meet
With my money in a reconstructed bank.
"It's a safe and sure investment!" But it's one I can't afford,
For I've got to meet my bills and bay the rent,
And the cash I had provided (so these meetings have decided)
Shall be collared by the bank at three per cent.
I can draw out half my money, so they tell me, from the Crown;
But -- it's just enough to drive a fellow daft --
My landlord's quite distressed, by this very bank he's pressed,
And he'll sell me up, to pay his overdraft.
There's my nearest neighbour, Johnson, owed this self-same bank a debt,
Every feather off his poor old back they pluck't,
For they set to work to shove him, and they sold his house above him,
Lord! They never gave him time to reconstruct.
And their profits from the business have been twenty-five per cent,
Which, I reckon, is a pretty tidy whack,
And I think it's only proper, now the thing has come a cropper,
That they ought to pay a little of it back.
I have read about "reserve funds", "banking freeholds", and the like,
Till I thought the bank had thousands of assets,
And it strikes me very funny that they take a fellow's money
When they haven't got enough to pay their debts.
And they say they've lent my money, and they can't get paid it back.
I know their rates per cent were tens and twelves;
And if they've made a blunder after scooping all this plunder,
Why, they ought to fork the money out themselves.
So all you bank shareholders, if you won't pay what you owe,
You will find that on your bank will fall a blight;
And the reason is because it's simply certain that deposits
Will be stopped, the bank will bust, and serve you right!
Scheme | XABA XBXB XCXC XDXD XEXX CBFB BGEG BAFX XHXH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (89%) |
Metre | 101111100011101 11111110111 1011101010111 01101110101 1011110001111 011110010101 111110111101111 1110000101 101010101111101 11111110101 001110101110110 11101011111 111111101111101 11101110101 111011110111 0111111110 11101101111101 1001011111111 1111111101111011 1110111101 011010101110111 11101010101 0111101010111010 11111010111 11101011101001 1110111011 0111101011101010 11101011111 011111100111111 1111110101 011101010101110 11111010101 1111101111111 11111111101 0010101110101010 11101110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic heptameter |
Characters | 2,038 |
Words | 392 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 9 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 43 |
Words per line (avg) | 11 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 172 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 43 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:04 min read
- 82 Views
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"Reconstruction" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 2 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/2580/reconstruction>.
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