Analysis of The Emigration to New Zealand

Henry Lawson 1867 (Grenfell) – 1922 (Sydney)



I’ve just received a letter from a chum in Maoriland,
He’s working down in Auckland where he days he’s doing grand,
The climate’s cooler there, but hearts are warmer, says my chum,
He sends the passage money, and he says I’d better come.
(I’d like to see his face again, I’d like to grip his hand),
He says he’s sure that I’ll get on first-rate in Maoriland.

An’ tho’ he makes the best of things (it always was his style),
You mostly get on better in a new land for a while,
An’ when I see the fading line of my own native shore,
I’ll let it fade, and never want to see it anymore.
I’m tire of Sydney pavements, and the Western scrub and sand,
I’d rather fight my troubles for a change in Maoriland.

I’m off to make inquiries as to when the next boat sails,
I’m sick of all these colonies, but most of New South Wales,
An’ if you meet a friend of mine who wants to find my track,
Say you, “He’s gone to Maoriland, and isn’t coming back”.
An’ should it be the landlord or the rates, you understand,
Just say you’ll find him somewhere knocking round in Maoriland.


Scheme AABBAA CCDDAA EEFFAA
Poetic Form
Metre 110101010101 11010101111101 01010111110111 11010100111101 11111101111111 111111111101 1111011111111 11011100011101 11110101111101 1111010111101 110110100010101 110111010101 111101001110111 11111100111111 11110111111111 11111101101 111101101101 11111110101
Closest metre Iambic heptameter
Characters 1,100
Words 207
Sentences 7
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6
Lines Amount 18
Letters per line (avg) 44
Words per line (avg) 11
Letters per stanza (avg) 267
Words per stanza (avg) 68
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:02 min read
141

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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