Analysis of SONG OF AUSTRALIA



It’s a song of Australia
And living in recession,
A hymn of power that corrupts
A country in depression;
It’s a song of young children
Still living in poverty,
Broken promises of treaties
Made to Aborigines.

It’s a carol of hurting
For neglected old folk,
On pensions so tiny
They’re at best a sick joke;
It’s a song of government
With a most evil intent,
Of the starving in parks
’Cause they can’t afford rent.

It’s a lullaby of madness
Committed in this country,
A land of the free and brave
A truly great democracy?
It’s a song of zero tariffs
And another 100,000 jobs gone,
A rhapsody of mad politics
Such a truly sad song.

It’s a ditty about poverty
Yes, but also of great greed,
Child-slave-labour surely is
The very last thing we need;
It’s a song of two parties
Both surely quite insane,
And our pleas for compassion
All seemingly in vain.

It’s a dirge about heartaches
When everything is going wrong,
It’s a song of unemployment
Dole queues march on and on;
It’s a lyric about employers
Who want work without pay,
It’s a song of the bad times
That just won’t go away.

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


Scheme ABCBBDEE XFDFGHXH XDXDXXXI DJXJEKBK CIGXXLXL XXA
Poetic Form
Metre 1011010 0100010 01110101 0100010 1011110 1100100 10100110 110100 1010110 101011 110110 111011 1011100 1011001 101001 111011 1010110 0100110 0110101 01010100 10111010 001011 01001110 101011 101001100 1110111 111101 0101111 1011110 110101 01011010 110001 101011 1101101 1011010 111101 101001010 111011 1011011 111101 01 101010 100100010
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,139
Words 209
Sentences 7
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 3
Lines Amount 43
Letters per line (avg) 21
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 150
Words per stanza (avg) 35

About this poem

Wrote this in the early 1990s when Paul Keating was prime minister, threatening to bring in a 15% GST (VAT).

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Written on 1994

Submitted by PHIL_ROBERTS on August 30, 2021

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:02 min read
0

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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