Analysis of The Day Before I Die

Henry Lawson 1867 (Grenfell) – 1922 (Sydney)



There's such a lot of work to do, for such a troubled head!
I’m scribbling this against a book, with foolscap round, in bed.
It strikes me that I’ll scribble much in this way by and by,
And write my last lines so perchance the day before I die.

There’s lots of things to come and go, and I, in careless rhyme,
And drink and love (it wastes the most) have wasted lots of time.
There’s so much good work to be done it makes me sure that I
Will be the sorriest for my death, the day before I die.

But, lift me dear, for I am tired, and let me taste the wine—
And lay your cheek a little while on this lined cheek of mine.
I want to say I love you so—your patient love is why
I’ll have such little time, you know, the day before I die.


Scheme AABB CCBB DDBB
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 11011111110101 11001010111101 11111101011101 01111101010111 11111101010101 01011101110111 11111111111111 1101111010111 111111110011101 01110101111111 11111111110111 11110111010111
Closest metre Iambic heptameter
Characters 742
Words 154
Sentences 8
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 12
Letters per line (avg) 46
Words per line (avg) 13
Letters per stanza (avg) 183
Words per stanza (avg) 51
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

46 sec read
51

Henry Lawson

Henry Lawson 17 June 1867 - 2 September 1922 was an Australian writer and poet Along with his contemporary Banjo Paterson Lawson is among the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the colonial period more…

All Henry Lawson poems | Henry Lawson Books

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