Analysis of Callaghan's Hotel

Henry Lawson 1867 (Grenfell) – 1922 (Sydney)



There's the same old coaching stable that was used by Cobb and Co.,
And the yard the coaches stood in more than sixty years ago;
And the public-private parlour, where they serve the passing swell,
Was the shoeing forge and smithy up at Callaghan’s Hotel.
There’s the same old walls and woodwork that our fathers built to last,
And the same old doors and wainscot and the windows of the past;
And the same old nooks and corners where the Jim-Jams used to dwell;
But the Fantods dance no longer up at Callaghan’s Hotel.

There are memories of old days that were red instead of blue;
In the time of “Dick the Devil” and of other devils too;
But perhaps they went to Heaven and are angels, doing well—
They were always open-hearted up at Callaghan’s Hotel.

Then the new chum, broken-hearted, and with boots all broken too,
Got another pair of bluchers, and a quid to see him through;
And the old chum got a bottle, who was down and suffering Hell;—
And no tucker-bag went empty out of Callaghan’s Hotel.

And I sit and think in sorrow of the nights that I have seen,
When we fought with chairs and bottles for the orange and the green;
For the peace of poor old Ireland, till they rang the breakfast bell—
And the honour of Old England, up at Callaghan’s Hotel.


Scheme AABBCCBB DDBB DDBB EEBB
Poetic Form
Metre 101110101111101 001010101110101 001010101110101 10110111101 101110111010111 00111010010101 001110101011111 101111011101 111001111010111 001110100110101 101111100110101 101101011101 101110100111101 10101110011111 0011101011101001 0110111011101 011010101011111 111110101010001 1011111001110101 001111011101
Closest metre Iambic octameter
Characters 1,270
Words 235
Sentences 7
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 8, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 49
Words per line (avg) 12
Letters per stanza (avg) 245
Words per stanza (avg) 58
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 06, 2023

1:10 min read
78

Henry Lawson

Henry Lawson 17 June 1867 - 2 September 1922 was an Australian writer and poet Along with his contemporary Banjo Paterson Lawson is among the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the colonial period more…

All Henry Lawson poems | Henry Lawson Books

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