Analysis of Australia's Peril (The Warning)
We must suffer, husband and father, we must suffer, daughter and son,
For the wrong we have taken part in and the wrong that we have seen done.
Let the bride of frivolous fashion, and of ease, be ashamed and dumb,
For I tell you the nations shall rule us who have let their children come!
How shall Australia escape it, we in the South and alone
Who have taken the sword for no right of England and none of our own?
(Can we bring back the husbands and fathers, can we bring the lovers and sons?
From the Dead to the homes we have ruined with the fire of our murdering guns?)
Who shall aid and protect us when the blood-streaked dawn we meet?
Will England, the hated of nations, whose existence depends on her fleet?
Who, because of the deer-parks and game-runs where her wheat-fields and pastures should be,
Must bring food for her herded thousands and shepherd it over the sea?
The beak of the British Octopus, or the Bosses within our reach
Who spend the hot days on the Mountains or summer at Manly Beach!
The thousands of paltry swindlers who are fathoms beneath our scorn,
Or the army of brave sons grown from the children who should have been born!
The wealth you have won has been wasted on trips to the English Rome,
On costly costumes from Paris, and titles and gewgaws from "home".
Shall a knighthood frighten Asia when she comes with the hate of hell?
Will the motor-launch race the torpedo, or the motor-car outspeed the shell?
Keep the wealth you have won from the cities, spend the wealth you have won on the land,
Save the floods that run into the ocean, save the floods that sink into the sand!
Make farms fit to live on, build workshops and technical schools for your sons;
Keep the wealth of the land in Australia, make your own cloth, machines, and guns!
Clear out the Calico Jimmy, the nigger, the Chow, and his pals;
Be your foreword for years: Irrigation. Make a network of lakes and canals!
See that your daughters have children, and see that Australia is home,
And so be prepared, a strong nation, for the storm that most surely must come.
Scheme | AABB CCDD EEFF GGHH IIJJ KKDD LLIB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (86%) |
Metre | 11101001011101001 10111101000111111 10111001001110101 11110101111111101 110100111001001 111001111110011101 111101001011101001 101101111010101101001 11100111011111 110010110101001101 1011011011101101011 11110101001011001 01101010101001101 1101110101101101 01011010111001101 10101111101011111 0111111101110101 110011100100111 101101011110111 10101100110101101 1011111010101111101 1011101010101110101 1111111101001111 101101001011110101 110101001001011 1111101010111001 1111011001101011 011010110101111011 |
Characters | 2,054 |
Words | 387 |
Sentences | 18 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 28 |
Letters per line (avg) | 58 |
Words per line (avg) | 14 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 232 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 54 |
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Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on March 07, 2023
- 1:56 min read
- 9 Views
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"Australia's Peril (The Warning)" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/55593/australia%27s-peril--%28the-warning%29>.
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