After All
The brooding ghosts of Australian night have gone from the bush and town;My spirit revives in the morning breeze,though it died when the sun went down;The river is high and the stream is strong,and the grass is green and tall,And I fain would think that this world of ours is a good world after all.
The light of passion in dreamy eyes, and a page of truth well read,The glorious thrill in a heart grown cold of the spirit I thought was dead,A song that goes to a comrade's heart, and a tear of pride let fall --And my soul is strong! and the world to me is a grand world after all!
Let our enemies go by their old dull tracks,and theirs be the fault or shame(The man is bitter against the world who has only himself to blame);Let the darkest side of the past be dark, and only the good recall;For I must believe that the world, my dear, is a kind world after all.
It well may be that I saw too plain, and it may be I was blind;But I'll keep my face to the dawning light,though the devil may stand behind!Though the devil may stand behind my back, I'll not see his shadow fall,But read the signs in the morning stars of a good world after all.
Rest, for your eyes are weary, girl -- you have driven the worst away --The ghost of the man that I might have been is gone from my heart to-day;We'll live for life and the best it brings till our twilight shadows fall;My heart grows brave, and the world, my girl, is a good world after all.
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- fain v. t.
- To be glad ; to wish or desire.
- dreamy a.
- Abounding in dreams or given to dreaming; appropriate to, or like, dreams; visionary.
- glorious a.
- Exhibiting attributes, qualities, or acts that are worthy of or receive glory; noble; praiseworthy; excellent; splendid; illustrious; inspiring admiration; as, glorious deeds. [OF. glorios, glorious, F. glorieux, fr. L. gloriosus. See Glory, n.]
- ghost n.
- The spirit; the soul of man. [OE. gast, gost, soul, spirit, AS. gast breath, spirit, soul; akin to OS. g spirit, soul, D. geest, G. geist, and prob. to E. gaze, ghastly.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
After All is in the public domain. This text is taken from In the Days When the World Was Wide, and Other Verses, Project Gutenberg ebook #214; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Henry Lawson, After All, in In the Days When the World Was Wide (1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #214, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lawson-world-was-wide/after-all.html, id L23244.
Form and metre
After All is 24 lines in 5 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 67% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter.
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 A-A-BB townA · breeze · downA · strong · tallB · allB
- 2 AABB readA · deadA · fallB · allB
- 3 -AABB tracks · shameA · blameA · recallB · allB
- 4 A-ABB blindA · light · behindA · fallB · allB
- 5 AABB awayA · dayA · fallB · allB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The brooding ghosts of Australian night have gone from the bush and town; | 16 | ·/˘··˘/˘········ |
| My spirit revives in the morning breeze, | 10 | ·/˘˘/··/˘· |
| though it died when the sun went down; | 8 | ········ |
| The river is high and the stream is strong, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| and the grass is green and tall, | 7 | ······· |
| And I fain would think that this world of ours is a good world after all. | 18 | ·········/˘······· |
| The light of passion in dreamy eyes, and a page of truth well read, | 16 | ···/˘·/˘········ |
| The glorious thrill in a heart grown cold of the spirit I thought was dead, | 18 | ·/˘˘········/˘···· |
| A song that goes to a comrade's heart, and a tear of pride let fall -- | 16 | ······/········· |
| And my soul is strong! and the world to me is a grand world after all! | 17 | ················· |
| Let our enemies go by their old dull tracks, | 12 | ·/˘/˘˘······ |
| and theirs be the fault or shame | 7 | ······· |
| (The man is bitter against the world who has only himself to blame); | 17 | ···/˘······/˘˘/·· |
| Let the darkest side of the past be dark, and only the good recall; | 17 | ··/˘·······/˘··/· |
| For I must believe that the world, my dear, is a kind world after all. | 17 | ···˘/············ |
| It well may be that I saw too plain, and it may be I was blind; | 16 | ················ |
| But I'll keep my face to the dawning light, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| though the devil may stand behind! | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Though the devil may stand behind my back, I'll not see his shadow fall, | 17 | ··/˘··········/·· |
| But read the signs in the morning stars of a good world after all. | 16 | ······/˘········ |
| Rest, for your eyes are weary, girl -- you have driven the worst away -- | 16 | ·····/˘···/˘··˘/ |
| The ghost of the man that I might have been is gone from my heart to-day; | 17 | ················· |
| We'll live for life and the best it brings till our twilight shadows fall; | 17 | ··········/˘/·/·· |
| My heart grows brave, and the world, my girl, is a good world after all. | 16 | ················ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.