Analysis of Waltzing Matilda

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



OH! there once was a swagman camped in the Billabong,
   Under the shade of a Coolabah tree;
And he sang as he looked at his old billy boiling,
   “Who’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me.”

Who’ll come a-waltzing Matilda, my darling,
    Who’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?
Waltzing Matilda and leading a water-bag—
    Who’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?
Down came a jumbuck to drink at the water-hole,
   Up jumped the swagman and grabbed him in glee;
And he sang as he put him away in his tucker-bag,
   “You’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me!”

Down came the Squatter a-riding his thorough-bred;
   Down came Policemen—one, two, and three.
”Whose is the jumbuck you’ve got in the tucker-bag?
   You’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me.”

But the swagman, he up and he jumped in the water-hole,
   Drowning himself by the Coolabah tree;
And his ghost may be heard as it sings in the Billabong,
   “Who’ll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?”

Andrew Barton ‘Banjo’ Paterson


Scheme abaB aBaBcbaB xbaB cbaB x
Poetic Form
Metre 1111011001 10011011 0111111111010 1101001011 11010010110 1101001011 100100100101 1101001011 11011110101 110101101 01111110101101 1101001011 110100101101 110101101 11011100101 1101001011 1011101100101 10011011 011111111001 1101001011 10101100
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 1,025
Words 166
Sentences 10
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 8, 4, 4, 1
Lines Amount 21
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 146
Words per stanza (avg) 32
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 04, 2023

49 sec read
228

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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