Analysis of Kangaroo Power

Henry Lawson 1867 (Grenfell) – 1922 (Sydney)



NOW, Yankee inventors can beat a retreat,
And German professors may take a back seat,
For their colours we’re going to lower:
They’ve invented a wonderful plough in the West,
The scientists call it “the latest and best”;
It ploughs, sows, and reaps without taking a rest,
And they drive it by kangaroo power.
Sing hey!
Sing ho!
Then it’s bully for kangaroo power!

O wondrous the changes our children shall meet,
For soon we may travel the principal street
In something far short of an hour.
The traffic shall flow without stoppage or jambs
And sharp little screeches and naughty big damns,
For soon all the hansoms and ’busses and trams
Shall travel by kangaroo power.
Sing hey!
Sing ho!
Then it’s bully for kangaroo power!

Advance, Young Australia, thy banner unfurled,
And jump through the years and astonish the world;
Thou art of all nations the flower.
And Bismarck with envy shall grind his old stumps,
And Yankee inventors shall sit in the dumps,
To see young Australia advancing by jumps,
When driven by kangaroo power.
Sing hey!
Sing ho!
Then it’s bully for kangaroo power!


Scheme aabcccbDEB aabfffbDEB ggbfffbDEB
Poetic Form Tetractys  (40%)
Etheree  (27%)
Metre 11001011001 01001011011 111010110 101001001001 01001101001 11101011001 011110110 11 11 111010110 110010101011 11111001001 010111110 01011011011 01101001011 1110101001 11010110 11 11 111010110 01101011001 01101001001 111110010 0111011111 01001011001 11101001011 11010110 11 11 111010110
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,077
Words 190
Sentences 15
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 10, 10, 10
Lines Amount 30
Letters per line (avg) 29
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 285
Words per stanza (avg) 63
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

57 sec read
178

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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