Analysis of Do You Think That I Do Not Know?
Henry Lawson 1867 (Grenfell) – 1922 (Sydney)
They say that I never have written of love,
As a writer of songs should do;
They say that I never could touch the strings
With a touch that is firm and true;
They say I know nothing of women and men
In the fields where Love's roses grow,
And they say I must write with a halting pen
Do you think that I do not know?
When the love-burst came, like an English Spring,
In days when our hair was brown,
And the hem of her skirt was a sacred thing
And her hair was an angel's crown.
The shock when another man touched her arm,
Where the dancers sat round in a row;
The hope and despair, and the false alarm
Do you think that I do not know?
By the arbour lights on the western farms,
You remember the question put,
While you held her warm in your quivering arms
And you trembled from head to foot.
The electric shock from her finger tips,
And the murmuring answer low,
The soft, shy yielding of warm red lips
Do you think that I do not know?
She was buried at Brighton, where Gordon sleeps,
When I was a world away;
And the sad old garden its secret keeps,
For nobody knows to-day.
She left a message for me to read,
Where the wild wide oceans flow;
Do you know how the heart of a man can bleed
Do you think that I do not know?
I stood by the grave where the dead girl lies,
When the sunlit scenes were fair,
And the white clouds high in the autumn skies,
And I answered the message there.
But the haunting words of the dead to me
Shall go wherever I go.
She lives in the Marriage that Might Have Been
Do you think that I do not know?
They sneer or scoff, and they pray or groan,
And the false friend plays his part.
Do you think that the blackguard who drinks alone
Knows aught of a pure girl's heart?
Knows aught of the first pure love of a boy
With his warm young blood aglow,
Knows aught of the thrill of the world-old joy
Do you think that I do not know?
They say that I never have written of love,
They say that my heart is such
That finer feelings are far above;
But a writer may know too much.
There are darkest depths in the brightest nights,
When the clustering stars hang low;
There are things it would break his strong heart to write
Do you think that I do not know?
Scheme | AbxbcdcD efefgdgD hihijdjD klklxdxD mnmnxdxD opopqdqD ArarxdxD |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11111011011 10101111 1111101101 10111101 11111011001 00111101 01111110101 11111111 1011111101 01110111 00110110101 0011111 0110101101 101011001 0100100101 11111111 1010110101 10100101 11101011001 01101111 0010110101 00100101 011101111 11111111 11101101101 1110101 0011101101 11111 110101111 1011101 11110110111 11111111 1110110111 101101 0011100101 01100101 1010110111 1101011 1100101111 11111111 111101111 0011111 1111011101 1110111 1110111101 1111101 1110110111 11111111 11111011011 1111111 110101101 10101111 1110100101 10100111 11111111111 11111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,180 |
Words | 438 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 56 |
Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 241 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 62 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 02, 2023
- 2:12 min read
- 189 Views
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"Do You Think That I Do Not Know?" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/17781/do-you-think-that-i-do-not-know%3F>.
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