Analysis of Second Class wait here
Henry Lawson 1867 (Grenfell) – 1922 (Sydney)
At suburban railway stations--you may see them as you pass--
there are signboards on the platform saying 'Wait here second class,'
And to me the whirr and thunder and the cluck of running-gear
Seem to be forever saying 'Second class wait here--
Wait here second class
Second class wait here.'
Seem to be forever saying, 'Second class wait here.'
Yes, the second class were waiting in the days of serf and prince,
And the second class are waiting--they've been waiting ever since,
There are gardens in the background, and the line is bare and drear,
Yet they wait beneath a signboard, sneering 'Second class wait here.'
I have waited oft in winter, in the mornings dark and damp,
When the asphalt platform glistened underneath the lonely lamp,
Glistened on the brick-faced cutting 'Sellum's Soap' and 'Blower's Beer,'
Glistened on enamelled signboards with their 'Second class wait here.'
And the others seemed like burglars, slouched and muffled to the throats,
Standing round apart and silent in their shoddy overcoats;
And the wind among the poplars, and the wires that thread the air,
Seemed to be forever snarling, snarling 'Second class wait there.'
Out beyond a further suburb, 'neath a chimney-stack alone
Lay the works of Grinder Brothers, with a platform of their own;
And I waited there and suffered, waited there for many a day,
Slaved beneath a phantom signboard, telling all my hopes to stay.
Ah! a man must feel revengeful for a boyhood such as mine.
God! I hate the very houses near the workshop by the line;
And the smell of railway stations, and the roar of running gear,
And the scornful-seeming signboards, saying 'Second class wait here.'
There's a train, with Death for driver, that is ever going past;
There will be no class compartments when it's 'all aboard' at last
For the long white jasper platform with an Eden in the rear;
And there won't be any signboards, saying 'Second class wait here'
Scheme | aabCac Cddbc eebc ffgg hhii jjbc kkbc |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 10101101111111 1111011011101 011010100011101 1110101010111 11101 10111 1110101010111 101010100011101 001011101110101 11100010011101 11101011010111 111010100010101 101110010101 1010111011011 101111110111 001011101010101 10101010011010 001010100101101 111010101010111 101010101010101 10111010101111 0110101010111001 10101011011111 101111101111 11101010101101 00111100011101 00101011010111 101111101110101 111110101110111 10111011110001 01111011010111 |
Closest metre | Iambic heptameter |
Characters | 1,896 |
Words | 337 |
Sentences | 11 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 5, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 31 |
Letters per line (avg) | 49 |
Words per line (avg) | 11 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 215 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 47 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:40 min read
- 40 Views
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"Second Class wait here" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 26 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/17910/second-class-wait-here>.
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