Analysis of Knocked Up
Henry Lawson 1867 (Grenfell) – 1922 (Sydney)
I'm lyin' on the barren ground that's baked and cracked with drought,
And dunno if my legs or back or heart is most wore out;
I've got no spirits left to rise and smooth me achin' brow --
I'm too knocked up to light a fire and bile the billy now.
Oh it's trampin', trampin', tra-a-mpin', in flies an' dust an' heat,
Or it's trampin' trampin' tra-a-a-mpin'
through mud and slush 'n sleet;
It's tramp an' tramp for tucker -- one everlastin' strife,
An' wearin' out yer boots an' heart in the wastin' of yer life.
They whine o' lost an' wasted lives in idleness and crime --
I've wasted mine for twenty years, and grafted all the time
And never drunk the stuff I earned, nor gambled when I shore --
But somehow when yer on the track yer life seems wasted more.
A long dry stretch of thirty miles I've tramped this broilin' day,
All for the off-chance of a job a hundred miles away;
There's twenty hungry beggars wild for any job this year,
An' fifty might be at the shed while I am lyin' here.
The sinews in my legs seem drawn, red-hot -- 'n that's the truth;
I seem to weigh a ton, and ache like one tremendous tooth;
I'm stung between my shoulder-blades -- my blessed back seems broke;
I'm too knocked out to eat a bite -- I'm too knocked up to smoke.
The blessed rain is comin' too -- there's oceans in the sky,
An' I suppose I must get up and rig the blessed fly;
The heat is bad, the water's bad, the flies a crimson curse,
The grub is bad, mosquitoes damned -- but rheumatism's worse.
I wonder why poor blokes like me will stick so fast ter breath,
Though Shakespeare says it is the fear of somethin' after death;
But though Eternity be cursed with God's almighty curse --
What ever that same somethin' is I swear it can't be worse.
For it's trampin', trampin', tra-a-mpin' thro' hell across the plain,
And it's trampin' trampin' tra-a-mpin' thro' slush 'n mud 'n rain --
A livin' worse than any dog -- without a home 'n wife,
A-wearin' out yer heart 'n soul in the wastin' of yer life.
Scheme | AABB CDCEE FFGG HHXX IIJJ KKLL MMLL DDEE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1110101110111 00111111111111 1111011101111 111111010010101 1111101011111 11111001 110111 1111110111 1111111001111 11111101010001 11011101010101 01010111110111 1111101111101 0111110111111 11011101010101 11010101110111 1101110111111 0101111111101 11110101110101 1101110111111 11111101111111 011111110001 1101111101011 01110101010101 01110101111 11011111111111 111110111101 11010011110101 1101111111111 1111101110101 0111101111111 0111101010111 0111111001111 |
Closest metre | Iambic heptameter |
Characters | 2,051 |
Words | 380 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 5, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 33 |
Letters per line (avg) | 45 |
Words per line (avg) | 11 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 184 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 47 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 30, 2023
- 2:00 min read
- 101 Views
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"Knocked Up" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/17841/knocked-up>.
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