Analysis of To Be Amused
Henry Lawson 1867 (Grenfell) – 1922 (Sydney)
You ask me to be gay and glad
While lurid clouds of danger loom,
And vain and bad and gambling mad,
Australia races to her doom.
You bid me sing the light and fair,
The dance, the glance on pleasure's wings –
While you have wives who will not bear,
And beer to drown the fear of things.
A war with reason you would wage
To be amused for your short span,
Until your children's heritage
Is claimed for China by Japan.
The football match, the cricket score,
The "scraps", the tote, the mad'ning Cup –
You drunken fools that evermore
"To-morrow morning" sober up!
I see again with haggard eyes,
The thirsty land, the wasted flood;
Unpeopled plains beyond the skies,
And precious streams that run to mud;
The ruined health, the wasted wealth,
In our mad cities by the seas,
The black race suicide by stealth,
The starved and murdered industries!
You bid me make a farce of day,
And make a mockery of death;
While not five thousand miles away
The yellow millions pant for breath!
But heed me now, nor ask me this –
Lest you too late should wake to find
That hopeless patriotism is
The strongest passion in mankind!
You'd think the seer sees, perhaps,
While staring on from days like these,
Politeness in the conquering Japs,
Or mercy in the banned Chinese!
I mind the days when parents stood,
And spake no word, while children ran
From Christian lanes and deemed it good
To stone a helpless Chinaman.
I see the stricken city fall,
The fathers murdered at their doors,
The sack, the massacre of all
Save healthy slaves and paramours –
The wounded hero at the stake,
The pure girl to the leper's kiss –
God, give us faith, for Christ's own sake
To kill our womankind ere this.
I see the Bushman from Out Back,
From mountain range and rolling downs,
And carts race on each rough bush track
With food and rifles from the towns;
I see my Bushmen fight and die
Amongst the torn blood-spattered trees,
And hear all night the wounded cry
For men! More men and batteries!
I see the brown and yellow rule
The southern lands and southern waves,
White children in the heathen school,
And black and white together slaves;
I see the colour-line so drawn
(I see it plain and speak I must),
That our brown masters of the dawn
Might, aye, have fair girls for their lusts!
With land and life and race at stake –
No matter which race wronged, or how –
Let all and one Australia make
A superhuman effort now.
Clear out the blasting parasites,
The paid-for-one-thing manifold,
And curb the goggled "social-lights"
That "scorch" to nowhere with our gold.
Store guns and ammunition first,
Build forts and warlike factories,
Sink bores and tanks where drought is worst,
Give over time to industries.
The outpost of the white man's race,
Where next his flag shall be unfurled,
Make clean the place! Make strong the place!
Call white men in from all the world!
Scheme | ABABCDCD XEXEFGFG HIHIJKJK LMLMNOXO PKPKQEQE RXRDSNSN TUTUVKVK WXWXYXYD SZSZ1 2 1 2 3 K3 K4 5 4 5 |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (30%) Tetractys (20%) |
Metre | 11111101 11011101 010101001 01010101 11110101 0101111 11111111 01110111 01110111 11011111 01110100 11110101 0110101 01010111 1101110 11010101 11011101 01010101 110101 01011111 01010101 010110101 0111011 01010100 11110111 01010011 11110101 01010111 11111111 11111111 11010001 01010011 1101101 11011111 010001001 11000101 11011101 01111101 11010111 110101 11010101 01010111 01010011 110101 01010101 0111011 11111111 1110111 11010111 11010101 01111111 11010101 11110101 01011101 01110101 11110100 11010101 01010101 11000101 01010101 1101111 11110111 110110101 11111111 11010111 11011111 11010101 0010101 1101010 0111110 0101101 11111101 1100101 1101100 11011111 11011100 0110111 11111101 11011101 11101101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,851 |
Words | 516 |
Sentences | 20 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 80 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 221 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 51 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:37 min read
- 135 Views
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"To Be Amused" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 8 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18153/to-be-amused>.
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