Since The Cities Are The Cities Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABB CCDD EEFF GHIJ KKLL MMNN OOOO PPOO OOQQ OORR LLSS| FOOLS can parrot cry the prophet when the proof is close at hand | A |
| And the blind can see the danger when the foe is in the land | A |
| Truth was never cynicism death or ruin s not a joke | B |
| Told you so is not a warning Patriotism not a croak | B |
| - | |
| Blame will aid no man nor country when the dark days come at last | C |
| As with men so with a nation and the warning time is past | C |
| Our great sins were of omission and the dogs of war are loosed | D |
| And we all must stand together when those sins come home to roost | D |
| - | |
| Since the cities are the cities and shall stand for evermore | E |
| Let us justify our being be it peace or be it war | E |
| For because we are the townsfolk and have never ridden far | F |
| Shall we call the bush to aid us that has made us what we are | F |
| - | |
| Westward went our brothers fighting distance drought and loneliness | G |
| While we lived in light and comfort knowing nothing of distress | H |
| We who never shared the hardships when the sunset led them on | I |
| Now s our time O street bred people with our faces to the dawn | J |
| - | |
| They have conquered with the cross cut and the wedges and the maul | K |
| With the spade and axe and mattock and the saddle packs and all | K |
| They have mighty work before them for the sake of you and me | L |
| Let us stand up to our duty We re the Rearguard by the Sea | L |
| - | |
| Days of gibes at street bred people by the street bred bards are done | M |
| Shall the man who lays the yard stick never learn to lay the gun | M |
| Shall the crouched type writer toiling for his home in days like these | N |
| Touch the button the less firmly when we play on other keys | N |
| - | |
| We have seen in many countries what the street bred men can do | O |
| In the desert scrub and jungle they were men who battled through | O |
| Human weeds of grand endurance winning where the strong men quailed | O |
| Pigeon chested leaders leading on where beef born courage failed | O |
| - | |
| Street bred people down the ages beggars mobs and democrats | P |
| Fought through many desperate sieges fought on horseflesh dogs and rats | P |
| When their own cowed country failed them then the city soul was proved | O |
| Street bred people died in thousands for the cities that they loved | O |
| - | |
| In the days when strength was needed days of pike and axe and sword | O |
| Daylight found the peaceful burghers ready keeping watch and ward | O |
| Clerks and tailors fought like heroes at the gates and in the trench | Q |
| Even Falstaff brought his herrings with some slaughter through the French | Q |
| - | |
| Every man should have a cottage and a garden to defend | O |
| But the should be is for ever cities stand until the end | O |
| Every farmer has a country that he loves when war drums roll | R |
| Every clerk may have a city that he loves with heart and soul | R |
| - | |
| Fat or lean we all are sinners lean or fat we all would be | L |
| High or low or lean or fatted tis for Nationality | L |
| It will be till all is ended as it was since all began | S |
| Tis the head and not the feathers tis the heart and not the man | S |
Henry Lawson
(1)
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