Freedom on the Wallaby
Henry Lawson 1867 (Grenfell) – 1922 (Sydney)
Australia's a big country
An' Freedom's humping bluey,
An' Freedom's on the wallaby
Oh! don't you hear 'er cooey?
She's just begun to boomerang,
She'll knock the tyrants silly,
She's goin' to light another fire
And boil another billy.
Our fathers toiled for bitter bread
While loafers thrived beside 'em,
But food to eat and clothes to wear,
Their native land denied 'em.
An' so they left their native land
In spite of their devotion,
An' so they came, or if they stole,
Were sent across the ocean.
Then Freedom couldn't stand the glare
O' Royalty's regalia,
She left the loafers where they were,
An' came out to Australia.
But now across the mighty main
The chains have come ter bind her –
She little thought to see again
The wrongs she left behind her.
Our parents toil'd to make a home –
Hard grubbin 'twas an' clearin' –
They wasn't crowded much with lords
When they was pioneering.
But now that we have made the land
A garden full of promise,
Old Greed must crook 'is dirty hand
And come ter take it from us.
So we must fly a rebel flag,
As others did before us,
And we must sing a rebel song
And join in rebel chorus.
We'll make the tyrants feel the sting
O' those that they would throttle;
They needn't say the fault is ours
If blood should stain the wattle!
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:15 min read
- 164 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | AAABBACA XDEDFGXG EHCHXCXC XGXBFIFI BIBIBJXJ |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,279 |
Words | 238 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
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"Freedom on the Wallaby" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/17797/freedom-on-the-wallaby>.
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