Analysis of The Man from Waterloo (With kind Regards to Banjo)
Henry Lawson 1867 (Grenfell) – 1922 (Sydney)
It was the Man from Waterloo,
When work in town was slack,
Who took the track as bushmen do,
And humped his swag out back.
He tramped for months without a bob,
For most the sheds were full,
Until at last he got a job
At picking up the wool.
He found the work was rather rough,
But swore to see it through,
For he was made of sterling stuff—
The Man from Waterloo.
The first remark was like a stab
That fell his ear upon,
’Twas—‘There’s another something scab
‘The boss has taken on!’
They couldn’t let the towny be—
They sneered like anything;
They’d mock him when he’d sound the ‘g’
In words that end in ‘ing.’
There came a man from Ironbark,
And at the shed he shore;
He scoffed his victuals like a shark,
And like a fiend he swore.
He’d shorn his flowing beard that day—
He found it hard to reap—
Because ’twas hot and in the way
While he was shearing sheep.
His loaded fork in grimy holt
Was poised, his jaws moved fast,
Impatient till his throat could bolt
The mouthful taken last.
He couldn’t stand a something toff;
Much less a jackaroo;
And swore to take the trimmings off
The Man from Waterloo.
The towny saw he must be up
Or else be underneath,
And so one day, before them all,
He dared to clean his teeth.
The men came running from the shed,
And shouted, ‘Here’s a lark!’
‘It’s gone to clean its tooties!’ said
The man from Ironbark.
His feeble joke was much enjoyed;
He sneered as bullies do,
And with a scrubbing-brush he guyed
The Man from Waterloo.
The Jackaroo made no remark
But peeled and waded in,
And soon the Man from Ironbark
Had three teeth less to grin!
And when they knew that he could fight
They swore to see him through,
Because they saw that he was right—
The Man from Waterloo.
Now in a shop in Sydney, near
The Bottle on the Shelf,
The tale is told—with trimmings—by
The Jackaroo himself.
‘They made my life a hell,’ he said;
‘They wouldn’t let me be;
They set the bully of the shed
‘To take it out of me.
‘The dirt was on him like a sheath,
‘He seldom washed his phiz;
‘He sneered because I cleaned my teeth—
‘I guess I dusted his!
‘I treated them as they deserved—
‘I signed on one or two!
‘They won’t forget me soon,’ observed
The Man from Waterloo.
Scheme | ababcdcdeaeAfgfghihi bjkjlmlmnonoejxA xpxpqkqbxalA krbrsasA xtxtqhqh pupuvavA |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1101110 110111 11011101 011111 11110101 110101 01111101 110101 11011101 111111 11111101 01110 01011101 111101 11010101 011101 111011 11110 11111101 011101 110111 010111 1111101 010111 11110111 111111 01110001 111101 11010101 111111 01011111 01101 1110101 1101 01110101 01110 0111111 11101 01110111 111111 01110101 010101 1111111 0111 11011101 111101 01010111 01110 011101 110100 010111 111111 01111111 111111 01111111 01110 10010101 010101 01111101 0101 11110111 11111 11010101 111111 01111101 110111 11011111 111101 11011101 111111 11011101 01110 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,215 |
Words | 428 |
Sentences | 22 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 20, 16, 12, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 72 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 277 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 70 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:08 min read
- 107 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"The Man from Waterloo (With kind Regards to Banjo)" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 26 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/18038/the-man-from-waterloo-%28with-kind-regards-to-banjo%29>.
Discuss this Henry Lawson poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In