Analysis of Give yourself a Show: New Year's Eve
Henry Lawson 1867 (Grenfell) – 1922 (Sydney)
TO my fellow sinners all, who, in hope and doubt,
Through the Commonwealth to-night watch the Old Year out,
New Year’s Resolutions are jerry-built I know,
But I want to say to you, “Give yourselves a show”.
You who drink for drinking’s sake, love for lust alone,
Thinking heaven is a myth and the world your own—
Dancing gaily down to hell in the devil’s dance—
This I have to say to you: “Give your souls a chance”.
You who drink because of shame that you think will last,
Or because of wrong done you—trouble in the past—
“Nothing left to live for now,” you will say, I know;
But you have your own self yet, give that self a show!
You who want all things on earth—money, love, and fame
Having the advantage of worldly place or name—
You who have more than you want, even than you know,
In the glorious New Year give someone else a show.
You, the mischief-makers all, who in secret glee
Love to tell the villainies of a scamp like me;
There are things he’ll never tell—things you’ll never know—
Look into your own lives first—give the man a show.
You, the politician, who, for jealousy or gold,
Or for mean ambition, sell, or see your country sold,
Pandering to the hollow crowd, toadying to the low,
For shame’s sake banish selfishness—give your land a show.
Scheme | AABB CCDD EEBB FFBB GGBB HHBB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain |
Metre | 111010110101 10101110111 11010110111 111111110101 11111111101 101010100111 101011100101 111111111101 111011111111 101111110001 101111111111 111111111101 111111110101 100010110111 111111110111 001001111101 101010110101 1110110111 111110111101 101111110101 100101110011 1110101111101 100101011101 1111010011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,289 |
Words | 236 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 40 |
Words per line (avg) | 10 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 161 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 39 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:10 min read
- 107 Views
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"Give yourself a Show: New Year's Eve" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/17802/give-yourself-a-show%3A-new-year%27s-eve>.
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