Analysis of For He Was a Jolly Good Fellow
Henry Lawson 1867 (Grenfell) – 1922 (Sydney)
THEY CHEERED him from the wharf—it was a glorious day:
His hand went to his scarf—his thoughts were far away.
Oh, he was “Jolly Good”, they sang it long and loud—
The money lender stood unknown amongst the crowd.
He’d taken him aside, while trembling fit to fall,
No friendly eye espied the last farewell of all!
He held a peevish kid—another at his knee;
The wife whom he could bid farewell—eternally
Stood nagging at his side in tones that none could hear,
And deared him, tender eyed, when passengers came near
(The cabin waits below the row and children’s squall,
And not a soul to know the bitter farce of all).
Their hearts were good as gold, each pocket spared a “tray”,
They pooled them as of old to drink him on his way.
His pile of luggage rose, as bravely as the best—
He had two suits of clothes, his wife and kids the rest.
He’d “stood ’em up” a sov., for fear of seeming small,
And he was thinking of that worst farewell of all.
They cheered from cargo ways and ballast heap and pile,
To last him all his days—they sent him off in style.
(He only took his book.) He only turned his head
In one last hopeless look towards a cargo shed
Where one stood brimming eyed in silence by the wall—
No jealous eyes espied that last farewell of all.
The ship is out of sight and out of memory clean,
He’s rolling through the Bight on board the All Serene.
His heart’s like half a brick, the voice of hope is dumb,
He’s handicapped and sick with fear of what’s to come.
They’re passing Cape Leuwin, the half-brick starts to fall,
But with a fiendish grin, he curses land and all.
Scheme | AABBCC DDXXCC AAEECC FFGGCC HHIICC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111011101001 111111110101 111101111101 010101010101 1101011100111 1101101111 110101010111 01111110100 110111011111 011101110011 010101010101 010111010111 110111110101 111111111111 111101110101 111111110101 111101111101 01110111111 11111010101 111111111101 110111110111 01110101011 111101010101 1101111111 0111110111001 110101110101 111101011111 11001111011 11011011111 110101110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,605 |
Words | 302 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
Lines Amount | 30 |
Letters per line (avg) | 41 |
Words per line (avg) | 10 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 243 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 60 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:30 min read
- 71 Views
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"For He Was a Jolly Good Fellow" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/17794/for-he-was-a-jolly-good-fellow>.
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