Analysis of The Rebel
Henry Lawson 1867 (Grenfell) – 1922 (Sydney)
Call me traitor to my country and a rebel to my God.
And the foe of “law and order”, well deserving of the rod,
But I scorn the biassed sentence from the temples of the creed
That was fouled and mutilated by the ministers of greed,
For the strength that I inherit is the strength of Truth and Right;
Lords of earth! I am immortal in the battles cf the night!
My religion is the oldest; it was born upon the earth
When to curse mankind for ages pride and tyranny had birth.
’Tis the offspring of oppression, born to suffering and strife,
Born to hate, above all other hate, the things that gave it life;
And ’twill live through all the ages, while a son of man is blind,
In the everlasting rhythm of the story of mankind!
From the Maker’s battered image, where the bloody helmet gleams,
From the graves of beaten armies rise the heroes of my dreams.
I am ever with the weaker in the battles for the right.
And I fight on vessels sinking ’neath the cruel blows of might;
But I hear of coming triumph in the tramp of flying feet
And the wild, despairing music of the army in retreat.
I am plunged in bitter sorrow at the sinking of a star,
For I mourn among the murdered where the broken lances are;
Souls of earth who rule with iron, raining death on farm and town,
Sacrificing lives uncounted, putting just rebellions down,
Ye shall answer for the murders of the slaves compelled to bleed
For the commonwealth of idlers and the common cause of greed.
I have come for common justice to the castles of the great,
And the people who have sent me crave assistance at the gate;
They obeyed the Maker’s sentence—whey have ploughed and tilled the soil.
Yet they go in rags and hunger in the harvest of their toil.
I demand the rights of Labour in the law of God defined;
Pause and weigh the pregnant answer!—where is peace or war behind.
Are we slaves beneath the power that our industry hath given?
Are we fuel to feed the engines of your artificial heaven?
I am come to warn the idlers at the castles of the great,
For the army that has sent me grows impatient at the gate:
They have gathered now in thousands from the alley and the den,
And the words of fire are breaking from the lips of quiet men!
Yield, and save the lives of thousands! for the rebels’ eyes are bright,
And the god of revolution is abroad on earth to-night.
Scheme | AABBCC DDEEFF GGCCHH IIJJBB KKLLFFMM KKNNCC |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 111011100010111 001110101010101 11101101010101 11101001010011 101110101011101 111110100010101 101010101110101 111111101010011 10110101110001 111011101011111 011110101011111 00010101010111 101010101010101 101110101010111 111010100010101 011110101010111 111110100011101 001010101010001 111010101010101 11101010101011 111111101011101 1001101010101 111010101010111 1010110010111 111110101010101 001011111010101 101010101110101 111010100010111 10101110011101 101010101111101 11101010110100110 1110110101101010 11111011010101 101011111010101 111010101010001 0011101101011101 101011101010111 00110101011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic octameter |
Characters | 2,313 |
Words | 442 |
Sentences | 19 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 8, 6 |
Lines Amount | 38 |
Letters per line (avg) | 48 |
Words per line (avg) | 12 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 304 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 73 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 14, 2023
- 2:12 min read
- 88 Views
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"The Rebel" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18074/the-rebel>.
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