Analysis of Now Listen to Me and I'll Tell You My Views

Andrew Barton Paterson 1864 (Orange, New South Wales) – 1941 (Sydney, New South Wales)



Now listen to me and I'll tell you my views concerning the African war,
And the man who upholds any different views, the same is a ritten Pro-Boer!
(Though I'm getting a little bit doubtful myself, as it drags on week after week:
But it's better not ask any questions at all -- let us silence all doubts with a shriek!)
And first let us shriek the unstinted abuse that the Tory Press prefer --
De Wet is a madman, and Steyn is a liar, and Kruger a pitiful cur!
(Though I think if Oom Paul -- as old as he is -- were to walk down the Strand with his gun,
A lot of these heroes would hide in the sewers or take to their heels and run!
For Paul he has fought like a man in his day, but now that he's feeble and weak
And tired, and lonely, and old and grey, of course it's quite safe to shriek!)

And next let us join in the bloodthirsty shriek, Hooray for Lord Kitchener's "bag"!
For the fireman's torch and the hangman's cord -- they are hung on the English Flag!
In the front of our brave old army! Whoop! the farmhouse blazes bright.
And the women weep and their children die -- how dare they presume to fight!
For none of them dress in a uniform, the same as by rights they ought.
They're fighting in rags and in naked feet, like Wallace's Scotchmen fought!
(And they clothe themselves from our captured troops -- and they're catching them every week;
And they don't hand them -- and the shame is ours, but we cover the shame with a shriek!)
And, lastly, we'll shriek the political shriek as we sit in the dark and doubt;
Where the Birmingham Judas led us in, and there's no one to lead us out.
And Rosebery -- whom we depended upon! Would only the Oracle speak!
"You go to the Grocers," says he, "for your laws!" By Heavens! it's time to shriek!


Scheme AABBCCDDBB EEFFGGBBHHBB
Poetic Form
Metre 1101101111101001001 0011011010010110111 1110010110111111101 111011101011111011101 0111101011010101 1110101101001001001 11111111111011101111 0111101100101111101 1111110101111111001 01001001011111111 0111100101011111 10101001111110101 0011101110101101 00101011011110111 1111100100111111 1100100101110011 01101110101011011001 01111001110111001101 0101100100111100101 10101011001111111 01110100111001001 111010111111101111
Characters 1,754
Words 346
Sentences 21
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 10, 12
Lines Amount 22
Letters per line (avg) 60
Words per line (avg) 15
Letters per stanza (avg) 660
Words per stanza (avg) 170
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:47 min read
33

Andrew Barton Paterson

Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson, was an Australian bush poet, journalist and author. He wrote many ballads and poems about Australian life, focusing particularly on the rural and outback areas, including the district around Binalong, New South Wales, where he spent much of his childhood. Paterson's more notable poems include "Clancy of the Overflow" (1889), "The Man from Snowy River" (1890) and "Waltzing Matilda" (1895), regarded widely as Australia's unofficial national anthem. more…

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    "Now Listen to Me and I'll Tell You My Views" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/2560/now-listen-to-me-and-i%27ll-tell-you-my-views>.

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