Analysis of The Christ of the 'Never'
Henry Lawson 1867 (Grenfell) – 1922 (Sydney)
With eyes that are narrowed to pierce
To the awful horizons of land,
Through the blaze of hot days, and the fierce
White heat-waves that flow on the sand;
Through the Never Land westward and nor'ward,
Bronzed, bearded, and gaunt on the track,
Low-voiced and hard-knuckled, rides forward
The Christ of the Outer Out-back.
For the cause that will ne'er be relinquished
Despite all the cynics on earth---
In the ranks of the bush undistinguished
By manner or dress---if by birth;
God's preacher, of churches unheeded---
God's vineyard, though barren the sod---
Plain spokesman where spokesman is needed,
Rough link 'twixt the bushman and God.
He works where the hearts of a nation
Are withered in flame from the sky,
Where the sinners work out their salvation
In a hell-upon-earth ere they die.
In the camp or the lonely hut lying
In a waste that seems out of God's sight,
He's the doctor---the mate of thee dying
Through the smothering heat of the night.
By his work in the hells of the shearers,
Where the drinking is ghastly and grim,
Where the roughest and worst of his hearers
Have listened bareheaded to him;
By his paths through the parched desolation,
Hot rides, and the long, terrible tramps;
By the hunger, the thirst, the privation
Of his work in the farthermost camps;
By his worth in the light that shall search men
And prove---ay! and justify---each,
I place him in front of all churchmen
Who feel not, who know not---but preach!
Scheme | ABABXCXC DEDEXFXF GHGHIJIJ AKXKGXGX XLGL |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11111011 101001011 101111001 11111101 1010110011 11001101 110110110 01101011 1011111010 01101011 001101010 11011111 110110010 11011001 110110110 11101001 111011010 11001101 1010111010 001011111 0011010110 001111111 1010011110 101001101 111001101 101011001 1010011110 110111 111101010 110011001 1010010010 1110011 1110011111 0110101 111011110 11111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,414 |
Words | 252 |
Sentences | 7 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 4 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 224 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 50 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:17 min read
- 101 Views
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