Analysis of The Loveable Characters
Henry Lawson 1867 (Grenfell) – 1922 (Sydney)
I long for the streets but the Lord knoweth best,
For there I am never a saint;
There are lovable characters out in the West,
With humour heroic and quaint;
And, be it Up Country, or be it Out Back,
When I shall have gone to my Home,
I trust to be buried 'twixt River and Track
Where my lovable characters roam.
There are lovable characters drag through the scrub,
Where the Optimist ever prevails;
There are lovable characters hang round the pub,
There are lovable jokers at sales
Where the auctioneer's one of the lovable wags
(Maybe from his "order" estranged),
And the beer is on tap, and the pigs in the bags
Of the purchasing cockies are changed.
There were lovable characters out in the West,
Of fifty hot summers, or more,
Who could not be proved, when it came to the test,
Too old to be sent to the war;
They were all forty-five and were orphans, they said,
With no one to keep them, or keep;
And mostly in France, with the world's bravest dead,
Those lovable characters sleep.
I long for the streets, but the Lord knoweth best,
For there I am never a saint;
There are lovable characters out in the West,
With humour heroic and quaint;
And, be it Up Country, or be it Out Back,
When I shall have gone to my Home,
I trust to be buried 'twixt River and Track
Where my lovable characters roam.
Scheme | ABABCDCD efefghgh aiaijkjk ABABCDCD |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1110110111 11111001 111001001001 1101001 01111011111 11111111 11111011001 111001001 111001001101 101001001 111001001101 111001011 1011101001 10111001 001111001001 10100111 101001001001 11011011 11111111101 11111101 101101001011 11111111 01001101101 11001001 1110110111 11111001 111001001001 1101001 01111011111 11111111 11111011001 111001001 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,307 |
Words | 247 |
Sentences | 5 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 32 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 252 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 61 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:14 min read
- 47 Views
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"The Loveable Characters" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 16 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18037/the-loveable-characters>.
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