The Dam That Keele Built
The Dam That Keele Built - form Summary
Cumulative Chain Builds Comic Effect
Paterson composes a humorous cumulative verse that repeatedly adds characters and concerns around a single public-works project. Each stanza appends a new person or element — engineer, calculations, a scornful critic, a dismayed minister, an anxious Sydneyite — restating prior lines so the poem accumulates comic weight. The repeating structure both mocks bureaucratic fuss and dramatizes how simple technical work becomes entangled in criticism, politics and public fear.
Read Complete AnalysesThis is the dam that Keele built. This is the stream that brought the water to fill the dam that Keele built; This is the Water and Sewer Brigade, That measured the stream that brought the water to fill the dam that Keele built; This is the Engineer by Trade -- Head of the Water and Sewer Brigade, Who measured the stream that brought the water to fill the dam that Keele built; These are the Calculations made By the Eminent Engineer by Trade, Head of the Water and Sewer Brigade, Who measured the stream that brought the water to fill the dam that Keele built; This is the scornful Mr Wade, Who sneered at the Calculations made By the Eminent Engineer by Trade, Head of the Water and Sewer Brigade, Who measured the stream that brought the water to fill the dam that Keele built; This is the Minister quite dismayed At the sight of the Scornful Mr Wade, Who sneered at the Calculations made By the Eminent Engineer by Trade, Head of the Water and Sewer Brigade, Who measured the stream that brought the water to fill the dam that Keele built; This is the Sydneyite afraid That a serious blunder will be made, Because of the Minister, quite dismayed At the sight of the Scornful Mr Wade, Who sneered at the Calculations made By the Eminent Engineer by Trade, Head of the Water and Sewer Brigade, Who measured the stream that brought the water to fill the dam that Keele built.
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