Analysis of Fighting Hard

Henry Lawson 1867 (Grenfell) – 1922 (Sydney)



Rolling out to fight for England, singing songs across the sea;
Rolling North to fight for England, and to fight for you and me.
Fighting hard for France and England, where the storms of Death are hurled;
Fighting hard for Australasia and the honour of the World!
Fighting hard.
Fighting hard for Sunny Queensland—fighting for Bananaland,
Fighting hard for West Australia, and the mulga and the sand;
Fighting hard for Plain and Wool-Track, and the haze of western heat—
Fighting hard for South Australia and the bronze of Farrar’s Wheat!
Fighting hard.

Fighting hard for fair Victoria, and the mountain and the glen;
(And the Memory of Eureka—there were other tyrants then),
For the glorious Gippsland forests and the World’s great Singing Star—
For the irrigation channels where the cabbage gardens are—
Fighting hard.

Fighting hard for gale and earthquake, and the wind-swept ports between;
For the wild flax and manuka and the terraced hills of green.
Fighting hard for wooden homesteads, where the mighty kauris stand—
Fighting hard for fern and tussock!—Fighting hard for Maoriland!
Fighting hard.

Fighting hard for little Tassy, where the apple orchards grow;
(And the Northern Territory just to give the place a show),
Fighting hard for Home and Empire, while the Commonwealth prevails—
And, in spite of all her blunders, dying hard for New South Wales.
Dying hard.

Fighting for the Pride of Old Folk, and the people that you know;
And the girl you left behind you—(ah! the time is passing slow).
For the proud tears of a sister! come you back, or never come!
And the weary Elder Brother, looking after things at home—
Fighting Hard!
You Lucky Devils
!
Fighting hard.


Scheme aabbCbdeeC ffggC hhdbC iijjc iixxCx C
Poetic Form
Metre 101111101010101 101111100111101 101110101011111 1011010001101 101 10111011011 10111010001001 101110110011101 10111010001111 101 1011101000010001 0010010101010101 101001100011101 10010101010101 101 10111010011101 1011010010111 1011101101011 101110110111 101 10111011010101 00101001110101 101110100101001 001110101011111 101 101011110010111 001110111011101 101110101111101 001010101010111 101 11010 1 101
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 1,681
Words 282
Sentences 20
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 10, 5, 5, 5, 8
Lines Amount 33
Letters per line (avg) 40
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 266
Words per stanza (avg) 56
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:24 min read
67

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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