A Backward Glance

Henry Lawson 1867 (Grenfell) – 1922 (Sydney)



IT IS well when you’ve lived in clover,
To mourn for the days gone by—
Would I live the same life over
Could I live again? Not I!
But, knowing the false from the real,
I would strive to ascend:
I would seek out my boyhood’s ideal,
And follow it to the end.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 22, 2023

16 sec read
297

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABABCDCD
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 263
Words 55
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 8

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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