Here Died Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCC DDEE FFGG HHII JJKK LLMM NNOO PPQQ RRSS FFTT UUVV WWXX YYHH ZZUA2 B2B2C2C2There's many a schoolboy's bat and ball that are gathering dust at home | A |
For he hears a voice in the future call and he trains for the war to come | B |
A serious light in his eyes is seen as he comes from the schoolhouse gate | C |
He keeps his kit and his rifle clean and he sees that his back is straight | C |
- | |
But straight or crooked or round or lame you may let these words take root | D |
As the time draws near for the sterner game all boys should learn to shoot | D |
From the beardless youth to the grim grey beard let Australians ne'er forget | E |
A lame limb never interfered with a brave man's shooting yet | E |
- | |
Over and over and over again to you and our friends and me | F |
The warning of danger has sounded plain like the thud of a gun at sea | F |
The rich man turns to his wine once more and the gay to their worldly joys | G |
The statesman laughs at a hint of war but something has told the boys | G |
- | |
The schoolboy scouts of the White Man's Land are out on the hills to day | H |
They trace the tracks from the sea beach sand and sea cliffs grim and grey | H |
They take the range for a likely shot by every cape and head | I |
And they spy the lay of each lonely spot where an enemy's foot might tread | I |
- | |
In the cooling breeze of the coastal streams or out where the townships bake | J |
They march in fancy and fight in dreams and die for Australia's sake | J |
They hold the fort till relief arrives when the landing parties storm | K |
And they take the pride of their fresh young lives in the set of a uniform | K |
- | |
Where never a loaded shell was hurled nor a rifle fired to kill | L |
The schoolboy scouts of the Southern World are choosing their Battery Hill | L |
They run the tapes on the flats and fells by roads that the guns might sweep | M |
They are fixing in memory obstacles where the firing lines shall creep | M |
- | |
They read and they study the gunnery they ask till the meaning's plain | N |
But the craft of the scout is a simple thing to the young Australian brain | N |
They blaze the track for a forward run where the scrub is everywhere | O |
And they mark positions for every gun and every unit there | O |
- | |
They trace the track for a quick retreat and the track for the other way round | P |
And they mark the spot in the summer heat where the water is always found | P |
They note the chances of cliff and tide and where they can move and when | Q |
And every point where a man might hide in the days when they'll fight as men | Q |
- | |
When silent men with their rifles lie by many a ferny dell | R |
And turn their heads when a scout goes by with a cheery growl All's well | R |
And scouts shall climb by the fisherman's ways and watch for a sign of ships | S |
With stern eyes fixed on the threatening haze where the blue horizon dips | S |
- | |
When men shall camp in the dark and damp by the bough marked battery | F |
Between the forts and the open ports where the miners watch the sea | F |
And talk perhaps of their boy scout days as they sit in their shelters rude | T |
While motors race to the distant bays with ammunition and food | T |
- | |
When the city alight shall wait by night for news from a far out post | U |
And men ride down from the farming town to patrol the lonely coast | U |
Till they hear the thud of a distant gun or the distant rifles crack | V |
And Australians spring to their arms as one to drive the invaders back | V |
- | |
There'll be no music or martial noise save the guns to help you through | W |
For a plain and shirt sleeve job my boys is the job that we'll have to do | W |
And many of those who had learned to shoot and in learning learned to teach | X |
To the last three men and the last galoot shall die on some lonely beach | X |
- | |
But they'll waste their breath in no empty boast and they'll prove to the world their worth | Y |
When the shearers rush to the Eastern Coast and the miners rush to Perth | Y |
And the man who fights in a Queenscliff fort or up by Keppel Bay | H |
Will know that his mates at Bunbury are doing their share that day | H |
- | |
There was never a land so great and wide where the foreign fathers came | Z |
That has bred her children so much alike with their hearts so much the same | Z |
And sons shall fight by the mangrove creeks that lie on the lone East Coast | U |
Who never shall know or not for weeks if the rest of Australia's lost | A2 |
- | |
And far in the future I see it well and born of such days as these | B2 |
There lies an Australia invincible and mistress of all her seas | B2 |
With monuments standing on hill and head where her sons shall point with pride | C2 |
To the names of Australia's bravest dead carved under the words Here died | C2 |
Henry Lawson
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about Here Died poem by Henry Lawson
Best Poems of Henry Lawson