Analysis of The Watch on the Kerb

Henry Lawson 1867 (Grenfell) – 1922 (Sydney)



Night-Lights are falling;
Girl of the street,
Go to your calling
If you would eat.
Lamplight and starlight
And moonlight superb,
Bright hope is a farlight,
So watch on the kerb.
Watch on the kerb,
Watch on the kerb;
Hope is a farlight;
Then watch on the kerb.

Comes a man: call him —
Gone! he is vext;
Curses befall him,
Wait for the next!
Fair world and bright world,
Life still is sweet —
Girl of the night-world,
Watch on the street.

Dreary the watch is:
Moon sinks from sight,
Gas only blotches
Darkness with light;
Never, Oh, never
Let courage go down;
Keep from the river,
Oh, Girl of the Town!


Scheme ababcdbdDDbd ebexfbfb xcxcghgh
Poetic Form
Metre 11110 1101 11110 1111 101 0101 11101 11101 1101 1101 1101 11101 10111 1111 10011 1101 11011 1111 11011 1101 10011 1111 11010 1011 10110 11011 11010 11101
Closest metre Iambic dimeter
Characters 588
Words 115
Sentences 8
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 12, 8, 8
Lines Amount 28
Letters per line (avg) 16
Words per line (avg) 4
Letters per stanza (avg) 152
Words per stanza (avg) 38
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

34 sec read
103

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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