Analysis of The Sliprails and the Spur
Henry Lawson 1867 (Grenfell) – 1922 (Sydney)
The colours of the setting sun
Withdrew across the Western land --
He raised the sliprails, one by one,
And shot them home with trembling hand;
Her brown hands clung -- her face grew pale --
Ah! quivering chin and eyes that brim! --
One quick, fierce kiss across the rail,
And, `Good-bye, Mary!' `Good-bye, Jim!'
Oh, he rides hard to race the pain
Who rides from love, who rides from home;
But he rides slowly home again,
Whose heart has learnt to love and roam.
A hand upon the horse's mane,
And one foot in the stirrup set,
And, stooping back to kiss again,
With `Good-bye, Mary! don't you fret!
When I come back' -- he laughed for her --
`We do not know how soon 'twill be;
I'll whistle as I round the spur --
You let the sliprails down for me.'
She gasped for sudden loss of hope,
As, with a backward wave to her,
He cantered down the grassy slope
And swiftly round the dark'ning spur.
Black-pencilled panels standing high,
And darkness fading into stars,
And blurring fast against the sky,
A faint white form beside the bars.
And often at the set of sun,
In winter bleak and summer brown,
She'd steal across the little run,
And shyly let the sliprails down.
And listen there when darkness shut
The nearer spur in silence deep;
And when they called her from the hut
Steal home and cry herself to sleep.
{Some editions have four more lines here.}
And he rides hard to dull the pain
Who rides from one that loves him best;
And he rides slowly back again,
Whose restless heart must rove for rest.
Scheme | ABABCDCDEFGF EHGHIJIJ KIKILMLM ANANOPOP XEQGQ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 0110101 01010101 1101111 011111001 01110111 110010111 11110101 01110111 11111101 11111111 11110101 11111101 01010101 01100101 01011101 11110111 11111110 11111111 11011101 1101111 11110111 11010110 1110101 01010111 1110101 01010011 01010101 01110101 01010111 01010101 11010101 0101011 01011101 01010101 01110101 11010111 101011111 01111101 11111111 01110101 11011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,638 |
Words | 286 |
Sentences | 20 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 12, 8, 8, 8, 5 |
Lines Amount | 41 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 229 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 56 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 20, 2023
- 1:26 min read
- 77 Views
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"The Sliprails and the Spur" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 16 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18096/the-sliprails-and-the-spur>.
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