Analysis of The Battling Days
Henry Lawson 1867 (Grenfell) – 1922 (Sydney)
So, sit you down in a straight-backed chair, with your pipe and your wife content,
And cross your knees with your wisest air, and preach of the ‘days mis-spent;’
Grown fat and moral apace, old man! you prate of the change ‘since then’—
In spite of all, I’d as lief be back in those hard old days again.
They were hard old days; they were battling days; they were cruel at times—but then,
In spite of all, I would rather be back in those hard old days again.
The land was barren to sow wild oats in the days when we sowed our own—
(’Twas little we thought or our friends believed that ours would ever be sown)
But the wild oats wave on their stormy path, and they speak of the hearts of men—
I would sow a crop if I had my time in those hard old days again.
We travel first, or we go saloon—on the planned-out trips we go,
With those who are neither rich nor poor, and we find that the life is slow;
It’s ‘a pleasant trip’ where they cried, ‘Good luck!’ There was fun in the steerage then—
In spite of all, I would fain be back in those vagabond days again.
On Saturday night we’ve a pound to spare—a pound for a trip down town—
We took more joy in those hard old days for a hardly spared half-crown;
We took more pride in the pants we patched than the suits we have had since then—
In spite of all, I would rather be back in those comical days again.
’Twas We and the World—and the rest go hang—as the Outside tracks we trod;
Each thought of himself as a man and mate, and not as a martyred god;
The world goes wrong when your heart is strong—and this is the way with men—
The world goes right when your liver is white, and you preach of the change ‘since then.’
They were hard old days; they were battling days; they were cruel times—but then,
In spite of all, we shall live to-night in those hard old days again.
Scheme | AABBBBCC BBDD BBEE BBFF BBBB |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11110011111101110 0111111010110111 1101001111110111 0111111110111101 1011110100110101111 01111110110111101 011101111001111101 1101111010111011011 101111110101110111 11101111110111101 1101111011011111 11111011101110111 10101111111110011 01111111101100101 11001101110110111 1111011111010111 11110011110111111 011111101101100101 11001001111011111 11101101010110101 0111111110110111 011111101101110111 101111010011010111 0111111110111101 |
Characters | 1,862 |
Words | 362 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 58 |
Words per line (avg) | 15 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 277 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 71 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:48 min read
- 71 Views
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"The Battling Days" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/17951/the-battling-days>.
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