Analysis of The Bard of Furthest Out
Henry Lawson 1867 (Grenfell) – 1922 (Sydney)
He longed to be a Back-Blocks Bard,
And fame he wished to win—
He wrote at night and studied hard
(He read The Bulletin);
He sent in “stuff” unceasingly,
But couldn’t get it through;
And so, at last, he came to me
To see what I could do.
The poet’s light was in his eye,
He aimed to be a man;
He bought a bluey and a fly,
A brand new billy-can.
I showed him how to roll his swag
And “sling it” with the best;
I gave him my old water-bag,
And pointed to the west.
“Now you can take the train as far
As Blazes if you like—
The wealthy go by motor-car
(Some travellers go by bike);
They race it through without a rest,
And find it very tame—
But if you tramp it to the west
You’ll get there just the same.
“(No matter if the hour is late,
The morning goes Out-Back),
You do not need a dog nor mate,
You’ll find them on the track.
You must avoid such deadly rhymes
As ‘self’ and ‘elf’ and ‘shelf’.
But were it as in other times,
I’d go with you myself.
“Those days are done for me, but ah!
On hills where you shall be,
The wattle and the waratah
Are good to smell and see.
But there’s a scent, my heart believes,
That ‘travellers’ set higher
Than wattle—’tis the dried gum leaves
That light the evening fire.
“The evening fire and morning fire
Are one fire in the Bush.
(You’ll find the points that you require
As towards the west you push.)
And as you pass by ancient ways,
Old camps, and mountain springs,
The spirits of the Roaring Days
Will whisper many things.
“The lonely ridge-and-gully belt—
The spirit of the whole
It must be seen; it must be felt—
Must sink into your soul!
The summer silence-creek-oaks’ sigh—
The windy, rainy “woosh”—
’Tis known to other men, and I—
The Spirit of the Bush!
“So on, and on, through dust and heat,
When past the spurs you be—
And you shall meet whom you shall meet,
And see what you shall see,
You need not claim the stranger’s due,
They yield it everywhere,
And mateship is a thing that you
Must take for granted there.
“And in the land of Lord-knows-where—
Right up and furthest out—
You find a new Australia there
That we know nought about.
Live as they live, fight as they fight,
Succeed as they succeed,
And then come back again and write
For all the world to read.”
I’ve got a note from Hungerford,
’Tis written frank and fair;
The bushman’s grim philosophy—
The bushman’s grin are there.
And tramping on through rain and drought—
Unlooked for and unmissed—
I may have sent to furthest out
The Great Bush Novelist.
Scheme | AXAXBCDC EFBFGHGH IGIGHJHJ KGKGLMLM XDADNONO OPOPQRQR SBSBEPEP TDTDCUCU UVUVWXWX XUDUVAVX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Etheree (31%) |
Metre | 11110111 011111 11110101 110100 11011 11111 01111111 111111 01011011 111101 11010001 011101 11111111 011101 11111101 010101 11110111 110111 01011101 1100111 11110101 011101 11111101 111101 110101011 010111 11110111 111101 11011101 110101 10110101 11111 11111111 111111 010001 111101 11011101 1100110 11010111 1101010 0101001010 1110001 11011110 1010111 01111101 110101 01010101 110101 01010101 010101 11111111 110111 01010111 010101 11110101 010101 11011101 110111 01111111 011111 11110101 11110 0110111 111101 00011111 110101 11010101 111101 11111111 011101 01110101 110111 11011100 110101 0110100 01111 01011101 1101 11111101 011100 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,493 |
Words | 475 |
Sentences | 21 |
Stanzas | 10 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 80 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 186 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 47 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:22 min read
- 112 Views
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"The Bard of Furthest Out" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 26 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/17949/the-bard-of-furthest-out>.
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