Analysis of The Boss Over the Board
Henry Lawson 1867 (Grenfell) – 1922 (Sydney)
When he’s over a rough and unpopular shed,
With the sins of the bank and the men on his head;
When he musn’t look black or indulge in a grin,
And thirty or forty men hate him like Sin—
I am moved to admit—when the total is scored—
That it’s just a bit off for the Boss-of -the-board.
I have battled a lot,
But my dream’s never soared
To the lonely position of Boss-of-the-board.
’Twas a black-listed shed down the Darling: the Boss
Was a small man to see—though a big man to cross—
We had nought to complain of—except what we thought,
And the Boss didn’t boss any more than he ought;
But the Union was booming, and Brotherhood soared,
So we hated like poison the Boss-of-the-board.
We could tolerate ‘hands’—
We respected the cook;
But the name of a Boss was a blot in our book.
He’d a row with Big Duggan—a rough sort of Jim—
Or, rather, Jim Duggan was ‘laying for’ him!
His hate of Injustice and Greed was so deep
That his shearing grew rough—and he ill-used the sheep.
And I fancied that Duggan his manliness lower’d
When he took off his shirt to the Boss-of-the-board,
For the Boss was ten stone,
And the shearer full-grown,
And he might have, they said, let the crawler alone.
Though some of us there wished the fight to the strong,
Yet we knew in our hearts that the shearer was wrong.
And the crawler was plucky, it can’t be denied,
For he had to fight Freedom and Justice beside,
But he came up so gamely, as often as floored,
That a blackleg stood up for the Boss-of-the-board!
And the fight was a sight,
And we pondered that night—
‘It’s surprising how some of those blacklegs can fight!’
Next day at the office, when sadly the wreck
Of Jim Duggan came up like a lamb for his cheque,
Said the Boss, ‘Don’t be childish! It’s all past and gone;
‘I am short of good shearers. You’d better stay on.’
And we fancied Jim Duggan our dignity lower’d
When he stopped to oblige a damned Boss-of-the-board.
We said nothing to Jim,
For a joke might be grim,
And the subject, we saw, was distasteful to him.
The Boss just went on as he’d done from the first,
And he favoured Big Duggan no more than the worst;
And when we’d cut out and the steamer came down—
With the hawkers and spielers—to take us to town,
And we’d all got aboard, ’twas Jim Duggan, good Lord!
Who yelled for three cheers for the Boss-of-the-board.
’Twas a bit off, no doubt—
And with Freedom about—
But a lot is forgot when a shed is cut out.
With Freedom of Contract maintained in his shed,
And the curse of the Children of Light on his head,
He’s apt to long sadly for sweetheart or wife,
And his views be inclined to the dark side of life.
The Truth must be spread and the Cause must be shored—
But it’s just a bit rough on the Boss-of-the-board.
I am all for the Right,
But perhaps (out of sight)
As a son or a husband or father he’s white.
Scheme | AABBCCXCCXXDDCCXEE FFGGACHHH IIJJCCKKK XEXXACFFF LLMMCCNNN AAOOCCKKK |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11100101001 101101001111 11111101001 01011011111 111101101011 111011101101 111001 111101 101001011101 101101101001 101111101111 111101101111 00111101111 10101100101 111011001101 11101 101001 1011011010101 101111001111 11011011011 11101001111 111011011101 0110110111 111111101101 101111 001011 01111110101 11111101101 1110101101011 00111011101 111111001001 111111011011 10111101101 001101 011011 10101111111 11101011001 111011101111 101111011101 11111111011 0110110101001 111101011101 111011 101111 000111101011 01111111101 01111011101 01111001011 10100111111 011101111011 11111101101 101111 011001 101101101111 1101101011 001101011111 1111101111 011101101111 01111001111 111011101101 111101 101111 101101011011 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,857 |
Words | 539 |
Sentences | 22 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 18, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9 |
Lines Amount | 63 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 356 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 89 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:41 min read
- 141 Views
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"The Boss Over the Board" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 26 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/17958/the-boss-over-the-board>.
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