Analysis of Heed Not!
Henry Lawson 1867 (Grenfell) – 1922 (Sydney)
Heed not the cock-sure tourist,
Seeing with English eyes;
Stroked at the banquet table
Still, with the old stock lies—
Pet of a social circle,
Guest in a garden fair—
Free of the first-class carriage—
He learns no Australia there.
Heed not the Southern humbugs
By the first saloons who come—
From his work in the wide, hot scrub-lands
The Australian goes not home.
Give them the toadies’ knighthood,
Fit for the souls they’ve got;
Fear not to shame Australia
For Australia knows them not.
Heed not the Sydney ‘dailies,’
Naught for the land they do;
Heed not the Melbourne street crowd,
For they know no more than you!
Pent in the coastal cities,
Still on the old-world track—
They know naught of Australia,
Of the heart of the great Out-Back.
But wait for the voice that gathers
Strength by the western creeks!
Heed ye the Out-Back shearers—
List when the Great Bush speaks!
Heed ye the black-sheep, working
His own salvation free—
And Oh! heed ye the sons of the exiles
When they speak of the things to be!
Scheme | XABABCXCAXXXXDED FGXGFHEH XIAIXJXJ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101110 101101 1101010 110111 1101010 100101 1101110 1110101 110101 1010111 111001111 0010111 11011 110111 1111010 1010111 1101010 110111 1101011 1111111 1001010 110111 1111010 10110111 11101110 110101 110111 110111 1101110 110101 011101101 11110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,009 |
Words | 183 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 16, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 263 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 60 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 54 sec read
- 69 Views
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"Heed Not!" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/17813/heed-not%21>.
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