Analysis of Wide Lies Australia
Henry Lawson 1867 (Grenfell) – 1922 (Sydney)
Wide lies Australia! The seas that surround her
Flow for her unity – all states in one.
Never has Custom nor Tyranny bound her –
Never was conquest so peacefully won.
Fair lies Australia! with all things within her
Meet for a Nation, the greatest to be:
Free to the White Man to woo and to win her:
Those who'd be happy and those who'd be free.
Free to live fully and free to live cleanly,
Free to give learning to daughter and son;
Free to act nobly but not to act meanly,
Free to forget what the old lands had done.
Free to be Brothers! Our hymn and our sermon
To keep for the White World the balance of Power,
Welcoming all, be they British or German,
All come to help us – we'll wait for the hour.
Out in the West where the flood-water gathers –
Out in the drought on the sand desert lone –
Went the brave English and brave foreign fathers
Fearlessly facing the fearful unknown.
Gemmed with their names lies the great past behind us.
Dark lie the storm clouds before us today,
Let us so live the future shall find us
Facing the danger as dauntless as they.
Scheme | ABABACAC CBXBBABA DEDEFGFG |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11010011010 1101001101 10110110010 1011011001 11010111010 1101001011 11011110110 1111001111 11110011110 1111011001 1111011111 1101101111 1111010101010 111011010110 10011110110 11111111010 10011011010 1001101101 10110011010 11001001 11111011011 1101101101 1111010111 100101111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,078 |
Words | 207 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 275 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 68 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:03 min read
- 87 Views
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"Wide Lies Australia" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18189/wide-lies-australia>.
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