Analysis of Dan Wasn’t Thrown from His Horse

Henry Lawson 1867 (Grenfell) – 1922 (Sydney)



THEY SAY he was thrown and run over,
But that is sheer nonsense, of course:
I taught him to ride when a kiddy,
And Dan wasn’t thrown from his horse.

The horse that Dan rode was a devil—
The kind of a brute I despise,
With nasty white eyelashes fringing
A pair of red, sinister eyes.

And a queerly-shaped spot on his forehead,
Where I put a conical ball
The day that he murdered Dan Denver,
The pluckiest rider of all.

’Twas after the races were over
And Duggan (a Talbragar man)
And two of the Denvers, and Barney
Were trying a gallop with Dan.

Dan’s horse on a sudden got vicious,
And reared up an’ plunged in the race,
Then threw back his head, hitting Dan like
A sledge-hammer, full in the face.

Dan stopped and got down, stood a moment,
Then fell to the ground like a stone,
And died about ten minutes after;
But they’re liars who say he was thrown.


Scheme ABCB XDED XFAF AGCG XHEH XIAI
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 111110110 11111011 111111010 0111111 011111010 01101101 1101101 01111001 001111110 11101001 011110110 011011 110010010 010011 01101010 01001011 111010110 01111001 111111011 01101001 110111010 11101101 010111010 111011111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 850
Words 166
Sentences 7
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 110
Words per stanza (avg) 27
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

49 sec read
76

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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