Analysis of Billy of Queensland
Henry Lawson 1867 (Grenfell) – 1922 (Sydney)
“Queensland,” he heads his letters—that’s all:
The date, and the month, and the year in brief;
He often sends me a cheerful scrawl,
With an undertone of ancient grief.
The first seems familiar, but might have changed,
As often the writing of wanderers will;
He seems all over the world to have ranged,
And he signs himself William, or Billy, or Bill.
He might have been an old mate of mine—
A shearer, or one of the station hands.
(There were some of ’em died, who drop me a line,
Signing other names, and in other hands.
There was one who carried his swag with me
On the western tracks, when the world was young,
And now he is spouting democracy
In another land with another tongue.)
He cheers me up like an old mate, quite,
And swears at times like an old mate, too;
(Perhaps he knows that I never write
Except to say that I’m going to).
He says he is tired of telling lies
For a Blank he knows for a Gory Scamp—
But—I note the tone where the sunset dies
On the Outside Track or the cattle camp.
Who are you, Billy? But never mind—
Come to think of it, I forgot—
There were so many in days behind,
And all so true that it matters not.
It may be out in the Mulga scrub,
In the southern seas, or a London street—
(I hope it’s close to a bar or pub )
But I have a feeling that we shall meet.
Scheme | ABABCDCD EFEFGHGH IJIJKLKL MNMNOPOP |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Traditional rhyme |
Metre | 11111011 0100100101 110110101 11101101 0110101111 11001011001 1111001111 011011011011 111111111 0101110101 10111111101 1010100101 1111101111 1010110111 0111100100 0010110101 111111111 011111111 011111101 011111101 1111101101 1011110101 111011011 1011110101 111101101 11111101 101100101 011111101 11110011 0010110101 111110111 1110101111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,296 |
Words | 260 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 31 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 245 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 64 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:18 min read
- 47 Views
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"Billy of Queensland" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/17749/billy-of-queensland>.
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