Analysis of The Ships that Won't Go Down
Henry Lawson 1867 (Grenfell) – 1922 (Sydney)
We hear a great commotion
'Bout the ship that comes to grief,
That founders in mid-ocean,
Or is driven on a reef;
Because it's cheap and brittle
A score of sinners drown.
But we hear but mighty little
Of the ships that won't go down.
Here's honour to the builders –
The builders of the past;
Here's honour to the builders
That builded ships to last;
Here's honour to the captain,
And honour to the crew;
Here's double-column headlines
To the ships that battle through.
They make a great sensation
About famous men that fail,
That sink a world of chances
In the city morgue or gaol,
Who drink, or blow their brains out,
Because of "Fortune's frown".
But we hear far too little
Of the men who won't go down.
The world is full of trouble,
And the world is full of wrong,
But the heart of man is noble,
And the heart of man is strong!
They say the sea sings dirges,
But I would say to you
That the wild wave's song's a paean
For the men that battle through.
Scheme | ababcdcd EfEfagxg axxcxdcd chchegag |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101010 1011111 1100110 1110101 0111010 011101 11111010 1011111 111010 010101 111010 11111 111010 01101 110101 1011101 1101010 0110111 1101110 0010111 1111111 011101 1111110 1011111 0111110 0011111 10111110 0011111 110111 111111 10111010 1011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 963 |
Words | 185 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 183 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 46 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 58 sec read
- 38 Views
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"The Ships that Won't Go Down" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18093/the-ships-that-won%27t-go-down>.
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