Analysis of The Federal City
Henry Lawson 1867 (Grenfell) – 1922 (Sydney)
OH! the folly, the waste, and the pity! Oh, the time that is flung behind!
They are seeking a site for a city, whose eyes shall be always blind,
Whose love for their ease grows greater, and whose care for their country less—
They are seeking a site for a city—a City of Selfishness.
In ignorance, deafness, blindness, in the cities by the sea,
With waste of time and of money, and with local jealousy;
With Anti-Federal envy, and personal paltriness,
They are seeking a site for a city—while Australia moans in distress.
By the coast with the people crowding, where Australia’s danger lies,
By the hills and the clear, cool rivers, and under the softer skies,
Where the fat shall not melt, and the ranter grow cool in the fresh’ning breeze,
And the dwellers drivel in comfort and the boodlers swindle at ease.
They are seeking a site for a city in the beauty spots of the land,
While I see so plainly, my children, where the Federal towers should stand!
Where the heart of Australia beats strongest and highest in desert air.
Make a site for a Federal City, and build you your capital there!
Where the crowd should be drawn from the coast line to the great bush that cradled the race,
Where the bush might be armed and directed should the seaboard be lost for a space;
Where the waste should be watered and gardened, in the drought-land of Never Despair,
There build you your Federal City, and make you a paradise there.
It shall be a world-wide object-lesson; it shall stand while a bushman is true,
And I tell you the bushmen will build it to show what a nation can do;
And there shall Australia sit queenly, and there shall her children be schooled,
For, I say, from the heart of Australia shall the whole of Australia be ruled.
Scheme | AABX CCBB DDEE FFGG HHGG IIJJ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (67%) |
Metre | 101001001010111101 1110011010111111 1111111001111101 11100110100101100 010010100010101 111101100110100 1101001001001 111001101010101001 10110101011101 1010011100100101 101111001110011 0010100100011011 111001101000101101 111110110101001011 10110101100100101 101101001001111001 101111101110111101 101111001010111101 1011110010001111001 1111100100110101 1110111010111101011 011101011111101011 0110101101101011 1111011010101101011 |
Characters | 1,726 |
Words | 317 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 57 |
Words per line (avg) | 13 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 227 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 53 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:35 min read
- 47 Views
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"The Federal City" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/17991/the-federal-city>.
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