Analysis of The Soul of a Poet
Henry Lawson 1867 (Grenfell) – 1922 (Sydney)
I HAVE written, long years I have written
For the sake of my people and right,
I was true when the iron had bitten
Deep into my soul in the night;
And I wrote not for praise nor for money,
I craved but the soul and the pen,
And I felt not the sting in the honey
Of praising the kindness of men.
You read and you saw without seeing,
My work seemed a trifle apart,
While the truth of things thrilled through my being,
And the wrong of things murdered my heart!
Cast out and despised and neglected,
And weak, and in fear, and in debt,
My songs, mutilated, rejected,
Shall ring through the Commonwealth yet!
And you, too, the pure and the guileless,
In the peace of your comfort and pride,
You have mocked at my bodily vileness,
You have tempted and cast me aside.
But wronged, and cast out, drink-sodden,
But shunned, and insane and unclean,
I have dared where few others have trodden,
I have seen what few others have seen.
I have seen your souls bare for a season,
I have heard as a deaf man can hear,
I have seen you deprived of your reason
And stricken with deadliest fear.
And when beautiful night hid the shocking
Black shame of the day that was past,
I felt the great universe rocking
With the truth that was coming at last!
Scheme | ABABCDCD EFEFXGXG HIHIAJAJ AXAXEKEK |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1110111110 101111001 1111010110 10111001 0111111110 11101001 0111010010 11001011 110110110 11101001 1011111110 001111011 110010010 01001001 11100010 1110101 011010010 001111001 111111001 111001101 11011110 11001001 1111110110 111111011 1111111010 111101111 1111011110 01011001 0110011010 11101111 11011010 101111011 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,205 |
Words | 237 |
Sentences | 8 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 30 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 239 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 59 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:11 min read
- 115 Views
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"The Soul of a Poet" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18105/the-soul-of-a-poet>.
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