Analysis of The Fitzroy Blacksmith

Andrew Barton Paterson 1864 (Orange, New South Wales) – 1941 (Sydney, New South Wales)



Under the spreading deficit,
The Fitzroy Smithy stands;
The smith, a spendthrift man is he,
With too much on his hands;
But the muscles of his brawny jaw
Are strong as iron bands.
Pay out, pay put, from morn till night,
You can hear the sovereigns go;
Or you'll hear him singing "Old Folks at Home",
In a deep bass voice and slow,
Like a bullfrog down in the village well
When the evening sun is low.

The Australian going "home" for loans
Looks in at the open door;
He loves to see the imported plant,
And to hear the furnace roar,
And to watch the private firms smash up
Like chaff on the threshing-floor.

Toiling, rejoicing, borrowing,
Onward through life he goes;
Each morning sees some scheme begun
That never sees its close.
Something unpaid for, someone done,
Has earned a night's repose.


Scheme XAXAXAXBXBXB XCXCXC XDEXED
Poetic Form
Metre 10010100 0111 0101111 111111 101011101 111101 11111111 1110101 1111101111 0011101 101100101 1010111 001010111 1010101 111100101 0110101 011010111 111011 10010100 101111 11011101 110111 1001111 110101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 802
Words 146
Sentences 6
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 12, 6, 6
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 26
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 206
Words per stanza (avg) 48
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

44 sec read
88

Andrew Barton Paterson

Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson, was an Australian bush poet, journalist and author. He wrote many ballads and poems about Australian life, focusing particularly on the rural and outback areas, including the district around Binalong, New South Wales, where he spent much of his childhood. Paterson's more notable poems include "Clancy of the Overflow" (1889), "The Man from Snowy River" (1890) and "Waltzing Matilda" (1895), regarded widely as Australia's unofficial national anthem. more…

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