Analysis of Shadows Before

Henry Lawson 1867 (Grenfell) – 1922 (Sydney)



"Like clouds o'er the South are the nations who reign
On fair islands that we would command;
But clouds that are darker and denser than these
Have sailed from an Isle in the Northern Seas
And rest on our Southern Land.

Low in dust is our Goddess of Liberty hurled
At our feet, and the time is at hand,
When we, the proud sons of the southern world,
Beneath a proud banner of freedom unfurled
And true to each other shall stand.

If e'er in the ranks of the Right we advance;
Though our enemies come like a flood,
We'll meet them like lions, aroused from our trance,
And show that a streak of the Olden Romance
Still runs in our commonplace blood.


Scheme XABBA CACCA DEDDE
Poetic Form
Metre 111001101011 111011101 11111001011 1111100101 01110101 1011101011001 1101001111 1101110101 01011011001 01111011 110001101101 1101001101 111110011101 01101101001 11010101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 653
Words 125
Sentences 4
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 5, 5, 5
Lines Amount 15
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 169
Words per stanza (avg) 41
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

38 sec read
117

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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