Analysis of A MONTH IN A MELBOURNE SWEATSHOP

Phil Roberts 1957 (Melbourne)



One month late in 1976
About half a mile from Spotswood Station,
I found myself employed by devils
And deeply in need of salvation.

A Greek man, name of Georgio
Was foreman of that factory from Hell,
I stepped straight out of a fierce hailstorm
To be near deafened by untold decibels.

A factory, I think named AGM
Which manufactured metal bottle tops,
On open machines without guards or sides
Which we were told must never stop.

Down thin runnels came the tops
From a large hopper up on high,
When it clogged and HAD to be stopped
We’d lean out over the hopper, clinging for dear life.

One day with a screwdriver in my hand
A day I still remember well,
My whole life flashed before my eyes
As leaning out, I almost fell.

I remember scraping out broken tops
Then on the greasy metal, my boots began to slide,
And but for the strong grip of the Union Rep’s hands
That awful day I would have died.

The Rep sought out the foreman, Georgio
And loudly shouted at the Greek,
And never more did I climb the hopper
Instead, resigning later that week:

But not before the dreadful sight
Of seeing a screaming, crying man,
Racing hysterically round the factory floor
Blood spewing from the stump
                       of his severed right hand!

THE END
© Copyright 2021, Philip Roberts
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia


Scheme XABA CDEB EFXX FXXX GDXD FHXH CIXI XXXXG XXX
Poetic Form
Metre 1110 011011110 11101110 010011010 0111110 1101110011 11111011 1111101100 01001111 101010101 1100101111 11011101 1110101 10110111 11101111 1111001010111 111010011 01110101 11110111 1101111 1010101101 1101010110111 011011101011 11011111 011101010 01010101 0101111010 010101011 11010101 110010101 10100101001 110101 111011 01 101010 100100010
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,275
Words 233
Sentences 8
Stanzas 9
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 3
Lines Amount 36
Letters per line (avg) 28
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 113
Words per stanza (avg) 26

About this poem

Wrote this and after watching a documentary about Asian sweatshops, which ended by saying that we had not had such sweatshops in Australia since the 1860s. Wrong! I worked in horrific sweatshops in the 1970s and early '80s, and they still exist in and around Melbourne to this day!

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Written on December 10, 2008

Submitted by PHIL_ROBERTS on August 08, 2021

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:09 min read
2

Phil Roberts

I turn 65 on the 31st of January 2022. I love cats, rock music, and horror fiction and poetry more…

All Phil Roberts poems | Phil Roberts Books

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