Analysis of For all the Land to See: A Song of the Tools

Henry Lawson 1867 (Grenfell) – 1922 (Sydney)



THE CROSS-CUT and the crowbar cross, and hang them on the wall,
And make a greenhide rack to fit the wedges and the maul,
The “done” long-handled shovel and the thong-bound axe that fell,
The crowbar, pick-axe and the “throw”—the axe that morticed well.
The old patched tent and “fly”, bag bunk and pillow of sugee,
The frying-pan and billy-can, for all the land to see.

The cross-cut, after pounds of files, is narrowed down and thin,
With here and there a tooth cut out as th’ curve straightened in,
The axe close to the iron ground, the shovel to the shaft,
The handle from the first worn smooth with sweat and dust and graft.
The maul and wedges burred and split, spell bravest history—
These were the arms our fathers bore, for none but they to see.

Then look you round on all that is, on cities proud and fair,
And look you westward from the range—towns, farms and homesteads there.
Then hurry to a place you know lest you should be too late,
And clear the scrub some little space—small place, say—three-by eight.
A blackened post stump stands where four rough panels used to be
And there take off your panama where none but God might see.


Scheme AABBXC DDEECC FFGGCC
Poetic Form
Metre 0110011011101 0101111010001 01110100011111 011100101111 0111011101011 01010101110111 01110111110101 110101111111100 01110101010101 01010111110101 01010101110100 100110101111111 11111111110101 0111010111011 11010111111111 01011101111111 01011111110111 0111110111111
Closest metre Iambic heptameter
Characters 1,160
Words 211
Sentences 8
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6
Lines Amount 18
Letters per line (avg) 49
Words per line (avg) 12
Letters per stanza (avg) 296
Words per stanza (avg) 70
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:03 min read
80

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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