SONG OF AUSTRALIA
It’s a song of Australia
And living in recession,
A hymn of power that corrupts
A country in depression;
It’s a song of young children
Still living in poverty,
Broken promises of treaties
Made to Aborigines.
It’s a carol of hurting
For neglected old folk,
On pensions so tiny
They’re at best a sick joke;
It’s a song of government
With a most evil intent,
Of the starving in parks
’Cause they can’t afford rent.
It’s a lullaby of madness
Committed in this country,
A land of the free and brave
A truly great democracy?
It’s a song of zero tariffs
And another 100,000 jobs gone,
A rhapsody of mad politics
Such a truly sad song.
It’s a ditty about poverty
Yes, but also of great greed,
Child-slave-labour surely is
The very last thing we need;
It’s a song of two parties
Both surely quite insane,
And our pleas for compassion
All seemingly in vain.
It’s a dirge about heartaches
When everything is going wrong,
It’s a song of unemployment
Dole queues march on and on;
It’s a lyric about employers
Who want work without pay,
It’s a song of the bad times
That just won’t go away.
THE END
© Copyright 2021, Philip Roberts
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
About this poem
Wrote this in the early 1990s when Paul Keating was prime minister, threatening to bring in a 15% GST (VAT).
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Written on 1994
Submitted by PHIL_ROBERTS on August 30, 2021
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:02 min read
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Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABCBBDEE XFDFGHXH XDXDXXXI DJXJEKBK CIGXXLXL XXA |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,139 |
Words | 209 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 3 |
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"SONG OF AUSTRALIA" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/108156/song-of-australia>.
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