Analysis of The Way I Treated Father [A Bush Song]
Henry Lawson 1867 (Grenfell) – 1922 (Sydney)
I WORKED with father in the bush
At splitting rails and palings.
He never was unkind to me,
Although he “had his failings:”
And now his grave is old and green,
And now at times I’m rather
Inclined to think ’twas very mean
The way I treated father.
The mother had for years been dead,
And Dad and I and Stumpy
Were living in a little shed—
What bushmen call a humpy;
And now I think when day began,
And it was cold and chilly,
’Twas mean to see a grey old man
Get up and boil the billy.
And though my lazy limbs were stiff;
And though ’twas winter weather.
And though my eyes were shut as if
The lids were glued together,
I think ’twas mean to lie in bed;
I think that I was silly,
Because I growled if father said,
“Git up and bile the billy!”
I didn’t help the cooking much
For I was always “tired”—
’Twas strange that I could eat with such
An appetite as I had;
But now I mind I never growled
When father shouted, “Willie!
It’s gittin’ on for dinnertime;
Go home and bile the hilly.”
His grave is growing old and green
And things have altered rather;
But still I think ’twas mighty mean
The way I treated father.
He left a tidy sum to me,
But I’d give all the money
To hear him say, “Will you get up
And bile the billy, Sonny?”
Scheme | xabacdcD efefgbgb hdhdebeb ixixxbxb cdcDbbfb |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (33%) |
Metre | 11110001 110101 11010111 111110 01111101 0111110 01111101 0111010 01011111 010101 01000101 110101 01111101 0111010 11110111 1101010 01110101 0111010 01110111 0101010 11111101 1111110 01111101 1101010 1110101 111110 11111111 110111 11111101 1101010 111110 1101010 11110101 0111010 11111101 0111010 11010111 1111010 11111111 0101010 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,244 |
Words | 252 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 40 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 187 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 49 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:15 min read
- 56 Views
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"The Way I Treated Father [A Bush Song]" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18140/the-way-i-treated-father-%5Ba-bush-song%5D>.
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