Australian Bards and Bush Reviewers
While you use your best endeavour to immortalise in verseThe gambling and the drink which are your country's greatest curse,While you glorify the bully and take the spieler's part --You're a clever southern writer, scarce inferior to Bret Harte.
If you sing of waving grasses when the plains are dry as bricks,And discover shining rivers where there's only mud and sticks;If you picture 'mighty forests' where the mulga spoils the view --You're superior to Kendall, and ahead of Gordon too.
If you swear there's not a country like the land that gave you birth,And its sons are just the noblest and most glorious chaps on earth;If in every girl a Venus your poetic eye discerns,You are gracefully referred to as the 'young Australian Burns'.
But if you should find that bushmen -- spite of all the poets say --Are just common brother-sinners, and you're quite as good as they --You're a drunkard, and a liar, and a cynic, and a sneak,Your grammar's simply awful and your intellect is weak.
Words in this poem
- endeavour v. t.
- To exert physical or intellectual strength for the attainment of; to use efforts to effect; to strive to achieve or reach; to try; to attempt. [OE. endevor; pref. en- + dever, devoir, duty, F. devoir: cf. F. se mettre en devoir de faire quelque chose to try to do a thing, to go about it. See Devoir, Deb]
- immortalise v. t.
- To render immortal; to cause to live or exist forever. S. Clarke. [Cf. F. immortaliser.]
- glorify v. t.
- To make glorious by bestowing glory upon; to confer honor and distinction upon; to elevate to power or happiness, or to celestial glory. [F. glorifier, L. glorificare; gloria glory + - ficare (in comp.) to make. See -fy.]
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
- discover v. i.
- To discover or show one's self.
- kendall
- A cloth colored green by dye obtained from the woad-waxen, formerly used by Flemish weavers at Kendal, in Westmoreland, England.
- ahead adv.
- In or to the front; in advance; onward. [Pref. a- + head.]
- 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.]
- liar n.
- A person who knowingly utters falsehood; one who lies. [OE. liere. See Lie to falsify.]
- cynic a.
- Having the qualities of a surly dog; snarling; captious; currish. [L. cynicus of the sect of Cynics, fr. Gr. Hound.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Australian Bards and Bush Reviewers 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, Australian Bards and Bush Reviewers, 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/australian-bards-and-bush-reviewers.html, id L23247.
Form and metre
Australian Bards and Bush Reviewers is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABB. The metre is iambic octameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%).
See other poems in iambic octameter.
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 AABB verseA · curseA · partB · harteB
- 2 AABB bricksA · sticksA · viewB · tooB
- 3 AABB birthA · earthA · discernsB · burnsB
- 4 AABB sayA · theyA · sneakB · weakB
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 octameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| While you use your best endeavour to immortalise in verse | 15 | ·····˘/˘·˘/˘˘·· |
| The gambling and the drink which are your country's greatest curse, | 15 | ·/˘˘······/˘/˘· |
| While you glorify the bully and take the spieler's part -- | 14 | ··/˘··/˘···/˘· |
| You're a clever southern writer, scarce inferior to Bret Harte. | 15 | ··/˘/˘/·˘/˘˘··· |
| If you sing of waving grasses when the plains are dry as bricks, | 15 | ····/˘/˘······· |
| And discover shining rivers where there's only mud and sticks; | 15 | ·˘/˘/˘/˘··/˘··· |
| If you picture 'mighty forests' where the mulga spoils the view -- | 15 | ··/˘/˘/˘······· |
| You're superior to Kendall, and ahead of Gordon too. | 15 | ·˘/˘˘·/˘·˘/·/˘· |
| If you swear there's not a country like the land that gave you birth, | 15 | ······/˘······· |
| And its sons are just the noblest and most glorious chaps on earth; | 15 | ······/˘··/˘··· |
| If in every girl a Venus your poetic eye discerns, | 15 | ··/˘··/˘·˘/˘·˘/ |
| You are gracefully referred to as the 'young Australian Burns'. | 15 | ··/˘˘˘/····˘/˘· |
| But if you should find that bushmen -- spite of all the poets say -- | 15 | ······/˘····/˘· |
| Are just common brother-sinners, and you're quite as good as they -- | 15 | ··/˘/˘/˘······· |
| You're a drunkard, and a liar, and a cynic, and a sneak, | 15 | ··/˘··/˘··/˘··· |
| Your grammar's simply awful and your intellect is weak. | 14 | ·/˘/˘/˘··/˘··· |
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.