Analysis of 'We're All Australians Now'

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



Australia takes her pen in hand
To write a line to you,
To let you fellows understand
How proud we are of you.

From shearing shed and cattle run,
From Broome to Hobson's Bay,
Each native-born Australian son
Stands straighter up today.

The man who used to 'hump his drum',
On far-out Queensland runs
Is fighting side by side with some
Tasmanian farmer's sons.

The fisher-boys dropped sail and oar
To grimly stand the test,
Along that storm-swept Turkish shore,
With miners from the west.

The old state jealousies of yore
Are dead as Pharaoh's sow,
We're not State children any more,
We're all Australians now!

Our six-starred flag that used to fly
Half-shyly to the breeze,
Unknown where older nations ply
Their trade on foreign seas,

Flies out to meet the morning blue
With Vict'ry at the prow;
For that's the flag the Sydney flew,
The wide seas know it now!

The mettle that a race can show
Is proved with shot and steel,
And now we know what nations know
And feel what nations feel.

The honoured graves beneath the crest
Of Gaba Tepe hill
May hold our bravest and our best,
But we have brave men still.

With all our petty quarrels done,
Dissensions overthrown,
We have, through what you boys have done,
A history of our own.

Our old world diff'rences are dead,
Like weeds beneath the plough,
For English, Scotch, and Irish-bred,
They're all Australians now!

So now we'll toast the Third Brigade
That led Australia's van,
For never shall their glory fade
In minds Australian.

Fight on, fight on, unflinchingly,
Till right and justice reign.
Fight on, fight on, till Victory
Shall send you home again.

And with Australia's flag shall fly
A spray of wattle-bough
To symbolise our unity,
We're all Australians now.


Scheme abab cdcd efef ghgh gigI jkjk bibi lmlm hnhn coco pipi qxqc jxrx jirI
Poetic Form Quatrain  (86%)
Metre 01010101 110111 1111001 111111 11010101 111101 11010101 110101 01111111 11111 11011111 100101 01011101 110101 01111101 110101 01110011 11111 11110101 110101 101111111 110101 01110101 111101 11110101 11101 11010101 011111 01010111 111101 01111101 011101 0110101 11011 1110100101 111111 111010101 101 11111111 01001101 1011111 110101 11010101 110101 11110101 110101 11011101 01010 11111 110101 11111100 111101 01010111 011101 1110100 110101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,664
Words 302
Sentences 15
Stanzas 14
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 56
Letters per line (avg) 24
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 96
Words per stanza (avg) 21
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:34 min read
118

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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    "'We're All Australians Now'" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 25 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/2732/%27we%27re-all-australians-now%27>.

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