Peter Anderson And Co. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCCDDAA EEFFGGHHIJKKHH LLMMHHNN OOHH OOPPOOOOOO QQOOHHRSA OOATAUUAAVV HHHHTTWWAA XXH YYAA OOHHOOHHHHZZ OOA2A2 HHAAB2B2C2C2 HHD2D2HHE2E2F2F2G2G2 H2H2HOHe had offices in Sydney not so many years ago | A |
And his shingle bore the legend Peter Anderson and Co ' | B |
But his real name was Careless as the fellows understood | C |
And his relatives decided that he wasn't any good | C |
'Twas their gentle tongues that blasted any character' he had | D |
He was fond of beer and leisure and the Co was just as bad | D |
It was limited in number to a unit was the Co | A |
'Twas a bosom chum of Peter and his Christian name was Joe | A |
- | |
'Tis a class of men belonging to these soul forsaken years | E |
Third rate canvassers collectors journalists and auctioneers | E |
They are never very shabby they are never very spruce | F |
Going cheerfully and carelessly and smoothly to the deuce | F |
Some are wanderers by profession turning up' and gone as soon | G |
Travelling second class or steerage when it's cheap they go saloon | G |
Free from ists' and isms' troubled little by belief or doubt | H |
Lazy purposeless and useless knocking round and hanging out | H |
They will take what they can get and they will give what they can give | I |
God alone knows how they manage God alone knows how they live | J |
They are nearly always hard up but are cheerful all the while | K |
Men whose energy and trousers wear out sooner than their smile | K |
They no doubt like us are haunted by the boresome if' or might' | H |
But their ghosts are ghosts of daylight they are men who live at night | H |
- | |
Peter met you with the comic smile of one who knows you well | L |
And is mighty glad to see you and has got a joke to tell | L |
He could laugh when all was gloomy he could grin when all was blue | M |
Sing a comic song and act it and appreciate it too | M |
Only cynical in cases where his own self was the jest | H |
And the humour of his good yarns made atonement for the rest | H |
Seldom serious doing business just as 'twere a friendly game | N |
Cards or billiards nothing graver And the Co was much the same | N |
- | |
They tried everything and nothing 'twixt the shovel and the press | O |
And were more or less successful in their ventures mostly less | O |
Once they ran a country paper till the plant was seized for debt | H |
And the local sinners chuckle over dingy copies yet | H |
- | |
They'd been through it all and knew it in the land of Bills and Jims | O |
Using Peter's own expression they had been in various swims' | O |
Now and then they'd take an office as they called it make a dash | P |
Into business life as agents' something not requiring cash | P |
You can always furnish cheaply when your cash or credit fails | O |
With a packing case a hammer and a pound of two inch nails | O |
And maybe a drop of varnish and sienna too for tints | O |
And a scrap or two of oilcloth and a yard or two of chintz | O |
They would pull themselves together pay a week's rent in advance | O |
But it never lasted longer than a month by any chance | O |
- | |
The office was their haven for they lived there when hard up | Q |
A daily' for a table cloth a jam tin for a cup | Q |
And if the landlord's bailiff happened round in times like these | O |
And seized the office fittings well there wasn't much to seize | O |
They would leave him in possession But at other times they shot | H |
The moon and took an office where the landlord knew them not | H |
And when morning brought the bailiff there'd be nothing to be seen | R |
Save a piece of bevelled cedar where the tenant's plate had been | S |
There would be no sign of Peter there would be no sign of Joe | A |
Till another portal boasted Peter Anderson and Co ' | - |
- | |
And when times were locomotive billiard rooms and private bars | O |
Spicy parties at the cafe long cab drives beneath the stars | O |
Private picnics down the Harbour shady campings out you know | A |
No one would have dreamed 'twas Peter | T |
no one would have thought 'twas Joe | A |
Free and easies in their diggings' when the funds began to fail | U |
Bosom chums cigars tobacco and a case of English ale | U |
Gloriously drunk and happy till they heard the roosters crow | A |
And the landlady and neighbours made complaints about the Co | A |
But that life it might be likened to a reckless drinking song | V |
For it can't go on for ever and it never lasted long | V |
- | |
- | |
- | |
Debt collecting ruined Peter people talked him round too oft | H |
For his heart was soft as butter and the Co 's was just as soft | H |
He would cheer the haggard missus and he'd tell her not to fret | H |
And he'd ask the worried debtor round with him to have a wet | H |
He would ask him round the corner and it seemed to him and her | T |
After each of Peter's visits things were brighter than they were | T |
But of course it wasn't business only Peter's careless way | W |
And perhaps it pays in heaven but on earth it doesn't pay | W |
They got harder up than ever and to make it worse the Co | A |
Went more often round the corner than was good for him to go | A |
- | |
I might live ' he said to Peter but I haven't got the nerve | X |
I am going Peter going going going no reserve | X |
Eat and drink and love they tell us for to morrow we may die | H |
Buy experience and we bought it we're experienced you and I ' | - |
Then with a weary movement of his hand across his brow | Y |
The death of such philosophy's the death I'm dying now | Y |
Pull yourself together Peter 'tis the dying wish of Joe | A |
That the business world shall honour Peter Anderson and Co | A |
- | |
When you feel your life is sinking in a dull and useless course | O |
And begin to find in drinking keener pleasure and remorse | O |
When you feel the love of leisure on your careless heart take holt | H |
Break away from friends and pleasure though it give your heart a jolt | H |
Shun the poison breath of cities billiard rooms and private bars | O |
Go where you can breathe God's air and see the grandeur of the stars | O |
Find again and follow up the old ambitions that you had | H |
See if you can raise a drink old man I'm feelin' mighty bad | H |
Hot and sweetened nip o' butter squeeze o' lemon Pete ' he sighed | H |
And while Peter went to fetch it Joseph went to sleep and died | H |
With a smile anticipation maybe of the peace to come | Z |
Or a joke to try on Peter or perhaps it was the rum | Z |
- | |
- | |
- | |
Peter staggered gripped the table swerved as some old drunkard swerves | O |
At a gulp he drank the toddy just to brace his shattered nerves | O |
It was awful if you like But then he hadn't time to think | A2 |
All is nothing Nothing matters Fill your glasses dead man's drink | A2 |
- | |
- | |
- | |
Yet to show his heart was not of human decency bereft | H |
Peter paid the undertaker He got drunk on what was left | H |
Then he shed some tears half maudlin on the grave where lay the Co | A |
And he drifted to a township where the city failures go | A |
Where though haunted by the man he was the wreck he yet might be | B2 |
Or the man he might have been or by each spectre of the three | B2 |
And the dying words of Joseph ringing through his own despair | C2 |
Peter pulled himself together' and he started business there | C2 |
- | |
But his life was very lonely and his heart was very sad | H |
And no help to reformation was the company he had | H |
Men who might have been who had been but who were not in the swim | D2 |
'Twas a town of wrecks and failures they appreciated him | D2 |
They would ask him who the Co was that queer company he kept | H |
And he'd always answer vaguely he would say his partner slept | H |
That he had a sleeping partner' jesting while his spirit broke | E2 |
And they grinned above their glasses for they took it as a joke | E2 |
He would shout while he had money he would joke while he had breath | F2 |
No one seemed to care or notice how he drank himself to death | F2 |
Till at last there came a morning when his smile was seen no more | G2 |
He was gone from out the office and his shingle from the door | G2 |
And a boundary rider jogging out across the neighb'ring run | H2 |
Was attracted by a something that was blazing in the sun | H2 |
And he found that it was Peter lying peacefully at rest | H |
With a bottle close beside him and the shingle on his | O |
Henry Lawson
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about Peter Anderson And Co. poem by Henry Lawson
Best Poems of Henry Lawson