Analysis of The Uncultured Rhymer To His Cultured Critics
Henry Lawson 1867 (Grenfell) – 1922 (Sydney)
Fight through ignorance, want, and care —
Through the griefs that crush the spirit;
Push your way to a fortune fair,
And the smiles of the world you’ll merit.
Long, as a boy, for the chance to learn —
For the chance that Fate denies you;
Win degrees where the Life-lights burn,
And scores will teach and advise you.
My cultured friends! you have come too late
With your bypath nicely graded;
I’ve fought thus far on my track of Fate,
And I’ll follow the rest unaided.
Must I be stopped by a college gate
On the track of Life encroaching?
Be dumb to Love, and be dumb to Hate,
For the lack of a college coaching?
You grope for Truth in a language dead —
In the dust ’neath tower and steeple!
What know you of the tracks we tread?
And what know you of our people?
‘I must read this, and that, and the rest,’
And write as the cult expects me? —
I’ll read the book that may please me best,
And write as my heart directs me!
You were quick to pick on a faulty line
That I strove to put my soul in:
Your eyes were keen for a ‘dash’ of mine
In the place of a semi-colon —
And blind to the rest. And is it for such
As you I must brook restriction?
‘I was taught too little?’ I learnt too much
To care for a pedant’s diction!
Must I turn aside from my destined way
For a task your Joss would find me?
I come with strength of the living day,
And with half the world behind me;
I leave you alone in your cultured halls
To drivel and croak and cavil:
Till your voice goes further than college walls,
Keep out of the tracks we travel!
Scheme | ABABCDCDEXEXEFEF GHGHIJIJ KXKLMLML NJNJOHOH |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (25%) Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 11100101 10111010 11110101 001101110 110110111 10111011 10110111 01110011 110111111 1111010 111111111 011001010 111110101 10111010 111101111 101101010 111100101 001110010 11110111 011111010 111101001 01101011 110111111 01111011 1011110101 11111110 110110111 001101010 0110101111 11111010 1111101111 1110110 1110111101 10111111 111110101 01101011 1110101101 1100101 1111101101 11101110 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,528 |
Words | 309 |
Sentences | 18 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 16, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 29 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 290 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 76 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:32 min read
- 134 Views
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"The Uncultured Rhymer To His Cultured Critics" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 16 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18126/the-uncultured-rhymer-to-his-cultured-critics>.
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