Australia's Peril Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABB CCDD EEFF GGHH IIJJ KKDD LLIB| We must suffer husband and father we must suffer daughter and son | A |
| For the wrong we have taken part in and the wrong that we have seen done | A |
| Let the bride of frivolous fashion and of ease be ashamed and dumb | B |
| For I tell you the nations shall rule us who have let their children come | B |
| - | |
| How shall Australia escape it we in the South and alone | C |
| Who have taken the sword for no right of England and none of our own | C |
| Can we bring back the husbands and fathers can we bring the lovers and sons | D |
| From the Dead to the homes we have ruined with the fire of our murdering guns | D |
| - | |
| Who shall aid and protect us when the blood streaked dawn we meet | E |
| Will England the hated of nations whose existence depends on her fleet | E |
| Who because of the deer parks and game runs where her wheat fields and pastures should be | F |
| Must bring food for her herded thousands and shepherd it over the sea | F |
| - | |
| The beak of the British Octopus or the Bosses within our reach | G |
| Who spend the hot days on the Mountains or summer at Manly Beach | G |
| The thousands of paltry swindlers who are fathoms beneath our scorn | H |
| Or the army of brave sons grown from the children who should have been born | H |
| - | |
| The wealth you have won has been wasted on trips to the English Rome | I |
| On costly costumes from Paris and titles and gewgaws from home | I |
| Shall a knighthood frighten Asia when she comes with the hate of hell | J |
| Will the motor launch race the torpedo or the motor car outspeed the shell | J |
| - | |
| Keep the wealth you have won from the cities spend the wealth you have won on the land | K |
| Save the floods that run into the ocean save the floods that sink into the sand | K |
| Make farms fit to live on build workshops and technical schools for your sons | D |
| Keep the wealth of the land in Australia make your own cloth machines and guns | D |
| - | |
| Clear out the Calico Jimmy the nigger the Chow and his pals | L |
| Be your foreword for years Irrigation Make a network of lakes and canals | L |
| See that your daughters have children and see that Australia is home | I |
| And so be prepared a strong nation for the storm that most surely must come | B |
Henry Lawson
(1)
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