Analysis of The Black Bordered Letter
Henry Lawson 1867 (Grenfell) – 1922 (Sydney)
An’ SO ’e’s dead in London,
An’ answered to the call,
An’ trotted through the Long Street,
With ’earse an’ plumes an’ all?
We was village boys an’ brothers—
We was warm as we could be,
In the milk-walk an’ the fried fish,
Up in London, ’im an’ me.
We was warm,
We was warm,
As we ’ad always been;
We never ’ad a dry word
Till she come between.
I lived round Windsor Terrace,
An’ ’im across the wye,
An’ when I sailed a emigrant
We never said good-bye!
He wos better than a brother—
Wot you Bushmen call a mate.
(Did he reach the rylwye stytion,
As they told me, just too late!)
We was warm,
We was warm,
As pals was ever seen;
We never ’ad a dry word
Till she come between.
I meant to go back ’ome again,
I meant to write to-night;
I meant to write by every mail,
But I thought ’e oughter write.
An’ now ’e’s left North London—
For a better place, perhaps—
She’s flauntin’ in ’er widder weeds,
With eyes on other chaps.
We was warm,
We was warm,
As we ’ad always been;
We never ’ad a dry word
Till she come between.
Oh! tongues is bad in wimmin,
When wimmin’s tongues is bad!
For they’ll part men an’ brothers
World oceans wide, my lad!
There was seven years between us,
An’ fifteen thousand mile,
An’ now there’s death an’ sorrer
For ever an’ awhile.
We was warm,
We was warm,
As two was ever seen;
We never ’ad a dry word
Till she come between.
Scheme | abxbcdxdEEFGH ijxjklal EEhGH xmxmanxn EEFGH aocoipkp EEhGH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111010 110101 1101011 111111 11101110 1111111 00111011 1010111 111 111 11111 1101011 11101 1111010 110101 11110100 110111 11101010 1110101 111011 1111111 111 111 111101 1101011 11101 11111101 111111 111111001 111111 1111110 1010101 1100101 111101 111 111 11111 1101011 11101 111101 11111 1111110 110111 11101011 101101 111111 110101 111 111 111101 1101011 11101 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 1,392 |
Words | 270 |
Sentences | 16 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 13, 8, 5, 8, 5, 8, 5 |
Lines Amount | 52 |
Letters per line (avg) | 19 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 141 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 38 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:21 min read
- 78 Views
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"The Black Bordered Letter" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/17954/the-black-bordered-letter>.
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