Analysis of Spread the Truth!

Henry Lawson 1867 (Grenfell) – 1922 (Sydney)



BRAVE the anger of the wealthy! Scorn their bitter lying spite!
Tell the Truth in simple language, when you know that you are right!
And they’ll read it by the slush-lamps in the station huts at night,

I have seen the People’s triumph in the visions of my dreams;
It as pictured by the campfires down the lonely western streams,
And the teamsters talk about it as they tramp beside their teams.

Write the Truth in simple language, and you shall not write in vain!
Sing a ringing song of freedom, and you’ll hear the same refrain
Where the drovers ride together far across the western plain.

Write of wrongs that you are hating with the grand old burning hate!
For the lonely digger reads it when the western day is late,
And he marks it in the paper he is sending to his mate.

Spread the Truth in simple language when you feel it in your breast!
It will reach the far selections in the wild Australian west,
Where the bushmen yarn together on a sunny day of rest.

O the workers’ new religion spreads beneath the southern skies,
And the bearded fathers read it, for its words are kind and wise,
And the little children listen to the Truth with wondering eyes.


Scheme AAA BBB CCC DDD EEE FFF
Poetic Form Triplet
Metre 101010101110101 101010101111111 011110110010111 111010100010111 111010101010101 001010111110111 101010100111101 101011100110101 10110101010101 111111101011101 101010111010111 011100101110111 101010101111011 111010100010101 101010101010111 101010101010101 001010111111101 0010101010111001
Closest metre Iambic octameter
Characters 1,157
Words 216
Sentences 12
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3
Lines Amount 18
Letters per line (avg) 51
Words per line (avg) 12
Letters per stanza (avg) 153
Words per stanza (avg) 36
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 17, 2023

1:04 min read
60

Henry Lawson

Henry Lawson 17 June 1867 - 2 September 1922 was an Australian writer and poet Along with his contemporary Banjo Paterson Lawson is among the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the colonial period more…

All Henry Lawson poems | Henry Lawson Books

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