Knocked Up
I'm lyin' on the barren ground that's baked and cracked with drought,And dunno if my legs or back or heart is most wore out;I've got no spirits left to rise and smooth me achin' brow --I'm too knocked up to light a fire and bile the billy now.
Oh it's trampin', trampin', tra-a-mpin', in flies an' dust an' heat,Or it's trampin' trampin' tra-a-a-mpin'through mud and slush 'n sleet;It's tramp an' tramp for tucker -- one everlastin' strife,An' wearin' out yer boots an' heart in the wastin' of yer life.
They whine o' lost an' wasted lives in idleness and crime --I've wasted mine for twenty years, and grafted all the timeAnd never drunk the stuff I earned, nor gambled when I shore --But somehow when yer on the track yer life seems wasted more.
A long dry stretch of thirty miles I've tramped this broilin' day,All for the off-chance of a job a hundred miles away;There's twenty hungry beggars wild for any job this year,An' fifty might be at the shed while I am lyin' here.
The sinews in my legs seem drawn, red-hot -- 'n that's the truth;I seem to weigh a ton, and ache like one tremendous tooth;I'm stung between my shoulder-blades -- my blessed back seems broke;I'm too knocked out to eat a bite -- I'm too knocked up to smoke.
The blessed rain is comin' too -- there's oceans in the sky,An' I suppose I must get up and rig the blessed fly;The heat is bad, the water's bad, the flies a crimson curse,The grub is bad, mosquitoes damned -- but rheumatism's worse.
I wonder why poor blokes like me will stick so fast ter breath,Though Shakespeare says it is the fear of somethin' after death;But though Eternity be cursed with God's almighty curse --What ever that same somethin' is I swear it can't be worse.
For it's trampin', trampin', tra-a-mpin' thro' hell across the plain,And it's trampin' trampin' tra-a-mpin' thro' slush 'n mud 'n rain --A livin' worse than any dog -- without a home 'n wife,A-wearin' out yer heart 'n soul in the wastin' of yer life.
Words in this poem
- cracked a.
- Coarsely ground or broken; as, cracked wheat.
- billy n.
- A club; esp., a policeman's club.
- sleet n.
- The part of a mortar extending from the chamber to the trunnions.
- strife n.
- The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [OF. estrif. See Strive.]
- somehow adv.
- In one way or another; in some way not yet known or designated; by some means; as, the thing must be done somehow; he lives somehow.
- ache n.
- A name given to several species of plants; as, smallage, wild celery, parsley. Holland. [F. ache, L. apium parsley.]
- tremendous a.
- Fitted to excite fear or terror; such as may astonish or terrify by its magnitude, force, or violence; terrible; dreadful; as, a tremendous wind; a tremendous shower; a tremendous shock or fall. [L. tremendus that is to be trembled at, fearful, fr. tremere to tremble. See Tremble.]
- broke v. i.
- To transact business for another. Brome. [See Broker, and cf. Brook.]
- damned a.
- Sentenced to punishment in a future state; condemned; consigned to perdition.
- cursed a.
- Deserving a curse; execrable; hateful; detestable; abominable.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Knocked Up 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, Knocked Up, 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/knocked-up.html, id L23228.
Form and metre
Knocked Up is 33 lines in 8 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 7 of its 8 stanzas. The metre is iambic heptameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
See other poems in iambic heptameter.
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 droughtA · outA · browB · nowB
- 2 A-ABB heatA · mpin · sleetA · strifeB · lifeB
- 3 AABB crimeA · timeA · shoreB · moreB
- 4 AABB dayA · awayA · yearB · hereB
- 5 AABB truthA · toothA · brokeB · smokeB
- 6 AABB skyA · flyA · curseB · worseB
- 7 AABB breathA · deathA · curseB · worseB
- 8 AABB plainA · rainA · wifeB · lifeB
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 heptameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I'm lyin' on the barren ground that's baked and cracked with drought, | 14 | ····/˘···˘···· |
| And dunno if my legs or back or heart is most wore out; | 14 | ·˘/··········· |
| I've got no spirits left to rise and smooth me achin' brow -- | 14 | ···/˘········· |
| I'm too knocked up to light a fire and bile the billy now. | 14 | ·······/···/˘· |
| Oh it's trampin', trampin', tra-a-mpin', in flies an' dust an' heat, | 15 | ··············· |
| Or it's trampin' trampin' tra-a-a-mpin' | 10 | ·········· |
| through mud and slush 'n sleet; | 6 | ······ |
| It's tramp an' tramp for tucker -- one everlastin' strife, | 13 | ·····/˘······ |
| An' wearin' out yer boots an' heart in the wastin' of yer life. | 15 | ··············· |
| They whine o' lost an' wasted lives in idleness and crime -- | 14 | ·····/˘··/˘˘·· |
| I've wasted mine for twenty years, and grafted all the time | 14 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘··· |
| And never drunk the stuff I earned, nor gambled when I shore -- | 14 | ·/˘······/˘··· |
| But somehow when yer on the track yer life seems wasted more. | 14 | ·/·········/˘· |
| A long dry stretch of thirty miles I've tramped this broilin' day, | 14 | ·····/˘······· |
| All for the off-chance of a job a hundred miles away; | 14 | ·········/˘·˘/ |
| There's twenty hungry beggars wild for any job this year, | 14 | ·/˘/˘/˘··/˘··· |
| An' fifty might be at the shed while I am lyin' here. | 13 | ·/˘·········· |
| The sinews in my legs seem drawn, red-hot -- 'n that's the truth; | 14 | ·············· |
| I seem to weigh a ton, and ache like one tremendous tooth; | 14 | ··········˘/˘· |
| I'm stung between my shoulder-blades -- my blessed back seems broke; | 14 | ·····/˘···˘··· |
| I'm too knocked out to eat a bite -- I'm too knocked up to smoke. | 14 | ·············· |
| The blessed rain is comin' too -- there's oceans in the sky, | 14 | ··˘··/˘··/˘··· |
| An' I suppose I must get up and rig the blessed fly; | 14 | ··˘/········˘· |
| The heat is bad, the water's bad, the flies a crimson curse, | 14 | ·····/˘····/˘· |
| The grub is bad, mosquitoes damned -- but rheumatism's worse. | 14 | ····˘/˘··/˘·˘· |
| I wonder why poor blokes like me will stick so fast ter breath, | 14 | ·/˘··········· |
| Though Shakespeare says it is the fear of somethin' after death; | 14 | ·/·······/˘··· |
| But though Eternity be cursed with God's almighty curse -- | 14 | ··˘/˘˘····˘/˘· |
| What ever that same somethin' is I swear it can't be worse. | 14 | ·/˘··/˘······· |
| For it's trampin', trampin', tra-a-mpin' thro' hell across the plain, | 15 | ···········˘/·· |
| And it's trampin' trampin' tra-a-mpin' thro' slush 'n mud 'n rain -- | 15 | ··············· |
| A livin' worse than any dog -- without a home 'n wife, | 14 | ·/˘··/˘······· |
| A-wearin' out yer heart 'n soul in the wastin' of yer life. | 15 | ··············· |
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.