Analysis of Joseph’s Dreams and Reuben's Brethren [A Recital in Six Chapters]
Henry Lawson 1867 (Grenfell) – 1922 (Sydney)
I cannot blame old Israel yet,
For I am not a sage—
I shall not know until I get
The son of my old age.
The mysteries of this Vale of Tears
We will perchance explain
When we have lived a thousand years
And died and come again.
No doubt old Jacob acted mean
Towards his father’s son;
But other hands were none too clean,
When all is said and done.
There were some things that had to be
In those old days, ’tis true—
But with old Jacob’s history
This tale has nought to do.
(They had to keep the birth-rate up,
And populate the land—
They did it, too, by simple means
That we can’t understand.
The Patriarchs’ way of fixing things
Would make an awful row,
And Sarah’s plain, straightforward plan
Would never answer now.)
his is a tale of simple men
And one precocious boy—
A spoilt kid, and, as usual,
His father’s hope and joy
(It mostly is the way in which
The younger sons behave
That brings the old man’s grey hairs down
In sorrow to the grave.)
Old Jacob loved the whelp, and made,
While meaning to be kind,
A coat of many colours that
Would strike a nigger blind!
It struck the brethren green, ’twas said—
I’d take a pinch of salt
Their coats had coloured patches too—
But that was not their fault.
Young Joseph had a soft thing on,
And, humbugged from his birth,
You may depend he worked the thing
For all that it was worth.
And that he grafted not but crowed,
You don’t need to be told,
And he was mighty cocky, with
His “Lo!” and his “Behold!”
He took in all his brothers said,
And went and told his Dad,
And then, when someone split on him,
No wonder they were mad.
But still he wasn’t satisfied,
And it would almost seem
He itched to rile his brethren, for
He went and dreamed a dream,
And told it to his brothers straight
(So Genesis believes):—
“Lo! we were working in the field,
And we were binding sheaves,
And my sheaf rose and stood upright,
And, straightway, for a sign,
Your sheaves came round about and made
Obeisance to mine!”
The brethren stared and made comment
In words that were not mild,
And when the meaning dawned on them
You bet that they were wild!
And Joseph left those angry men
To boil and blow off steam,
And ambled, chuckling, home agen
To dream another dream.
“Behold! I’ve dreamed a dream once more!”
He told ’em, frank and free—
“The sun, moon, and eleven stars
Have likewise bowed to me!”
(Perhaps Astronomy has changed
Since Joseph saw the light,
But I have wondered what the sun
Was doing out at night.)
And when they dropped!—you never heard,
In sheds or shanty bars,
Such awful language as escaped
From those eleven stars.
You know how Jacob-Israel loved
His hopeful youngest pup;
But, when he heard the latest dream,
It shook the old man up.
But Joseph talked his father round,
Who humoured every whim
(Perhaps old Jacob half-believed
They would bow down to him):
But, anyway, as always was,
He backed the youngest son,
And sent the others with the sheep
Out to the Check-’em run.
Now Jacob, with that wondrous tact
That doting parents show,
Or, anxious for his sons out back,
Sent, of all others, Joe!
To see if it was well with them
(And they were not asleep),
With one eye on his brothers’ camp,
And one eye on the sheep.
He drew a blank on Check-’em run—
Got bushed, too, you’ll be bound.
A certain cove—there’s always one—
Saw Joseph mooning round.
He asked him how it came to pass,
And what it was about,
And said, “They’re trav-lin’ now for grass
In Doothen—further out.”
He also muttered, “Strike me blue!”
While staring at the clothes—
He’d never seen a jackaroo
With such a coat as Joe’s.
He set the nameless on the track,
And scratched his head to think,
But gave it best, and, riding back,
Said firmly, “Strike me pink!”
’Twas blazing hot in Doothen then,
The sweat ran down in streams—
It melted out the memory
Of even Joseph’s dreams!
They’d had some trouble with the sheep,
Some Arabs and a “shirk”—
It was a favourable time
For Joe to get to work.
They saw him coming, “afar off”—
In this case, you might note,
Their eyesight wasn’t wonderful,
Considering the coat.
And what with sheep, and dust, and flies,
And damned shirks in the swim
With sheep stealers, the brethren were
For absenteeing him.
And, add to t
Scheme | Text too long |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110111001 111101 11110111 011111 010011111 110101 11110101 010101 11110101 011101 11010111 111101 10111111 011111 11110100 111111 11110111 01001 11111101 11101 01011101 111101 0111101 110101 11011101 010101 01101100 110101 11010101 010101 11011111 010101 11010101 110111 0111011 110101 11010111 110111 11110101 111111 11010111 01111 11011101 111111 01110111 111111 01110101 110101 11011101 010111 0111111 110101 111110 01111 11111101 110101 01111101 110001 11010001 010101 01110101 01101 11110101 111 01010110 011011 01010111 111101 01011101 110111 0101011 110101 01110111 111101 01100101 11111 01010011 110101 11110101 110111 01111101 011101 11010101 110101 111101001 110101 11110101 110111 11011101 111001 01110101 111111 110111 110101 01010101 110111 11011101 110101 11011111 111101 11111111 010101 11111101 011101 11011111 111111 0101111 11011 11111111 011101 01111111 01101 11010111 110101 110101 110111 11010101 011111 11110101 110111 1101011 011101 11010100 110101 11110101 110001 11011 111111 11110011 011111 111100 010001 01110101 011001 1110100 111 0111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 4,180 |
Words | 795 |
Sentences | 38 |
Stanzas | 17 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 16, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 1 |
Lines Amount | 137 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 187 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 46 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 3:58 min read
- 118 Views
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"Joseph’s Dreams and Reuben's Brethren [A Recital in Six Chapters]" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/17837/joseph%E2%80%99s-dreams-and-reuben%27s-brethren-%5Ba-recital-in-six-chapters%5D>.
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