The Shame of Going Back
When you've come to make a fortune and you haven't made your salt,And the reason of your failure isn't anybody's fault --When you haven't got a billet, and the times are very slack,There is nothing that can spur you like the shame of going back;Crawling home with empty pockets,Going back hard-up;Oh! it's then you learn the meaning of humiliation's cup.
When the place and you are strangers and you struggle all alone,And you have a mighty longing for the town where you are known;When your clothes are very shabby and the future's very black,There is nothing that can hurt you like the shame of going back.
When we've fought the battle bravely and are beaten to the wall,'Tis the sneers of men, not conscience, that make cowards of us all;And the while you are returning, oh! your brain is on the rack,And your heart is in the shadow of the shame of going back.
When a beaten man's discovered with a bullet in his brain,They POST-MORTEM him, and try him, and they say he was insane;But it very often happens that he'd lately got the sack,And his onward move was owing to the shame of going back.
Ah! my friend, you call it nonsense, and your upper lip is curled,I can see that you have never worked your passage through the world;But when fortune rounds upon you and the rain is on the track,You will learn the bitter meaning of the shame of going back;Going home with empty pockets,Going home hard-up;Oh, you'll taste the bitter poison in humiliation's cup.
Words in this poem
- billet n.
- A small paper; a note; a short letter. [F. billet, dim. of an OF. bille bill. See Bill a writing.]
- shabby a.
- Torn or worn to rage; poor; mean; ragged. [See Shab, n., Scabby, and Scab.]
- bravely adv.
- In a brave manner; courageously; gallantly; valiantly; splendidly; nobly.
- conscience n.
- Knowledge of one's own thoughts or actions; consciousness. [F. conscience, fr. L. conscientia, fr. consciens, p.pr. of conscire to know, to be conscious; con- + scire to know. See Science.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Shame of Going Back 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, The Shame of Going Back, 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/the-shame-of-going-back.html, id L23236.
Form and metre
The Shame of Going Back is 26 lines in 5 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 3 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is trochaic octameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
See other poems in trochaic 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-CC saltA · faultA · slackB · backB · pockets · upC · cupC
- 2 AABB aloneA · knownA · blackB · backB
- 3 AABB wallA · allA · rackB · backB
- 4 AABB brainA · insaneA · sackB · backB
- 5 AABB-CC curledA · worldA · trackB · backB · pockets · upC · cupC
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 trochaic octameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| When you've come to make a fortune and you haven't made your salt, | 15 | ······/˘··/˘··· |
| And the reason of your failure isn't anybody's fault -- | 15 | ··/˘··/˘/˘/˘˘˘· |
| When you haven't got a billet, and the times are very slack, | 15 | ··/˘··/˘····/˘· |
| There is nothing that can spur you like the shame of going back; | 15 | ··/˘········/˘· |
| Crawling home with empty pockets, | 8 | /˘··/˘/˘ |
| Going back hard-up; | 5 | /˘··· |
| Oh! it's then you learn the meaning of humiliation's cup. | 15 | ······/˘···˘/˘· |
| When the place and you are strangers and you struggle all alone, | 15 | ······/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| And you have a mighty longing for the town where you are known; | 15 | ····/˘/˘······· |
| When your clothes are very shabby and the future's very black, | 15 | ····/˘/˘··/˘/˘· |
| There is nothing that can hurt you like the shame of going back. | 15 | ··/˘········/˘· |
| When we've fought the battle bravely and are beaten to the wall, | 15 | ····/˘/˘··/˘··· |
| 'Tis the sneers of men, not conscience, that make cowards of us all; | 15 | ······/˘··/˘··· |
| And the while you are returning, oh! your brain is on the rack, | 15 | ·····˘/˘······· |
| And your heart is in the shadow of the shame of going back. | 15 | ······/·····/˘· |
| When a beaten man's discovered with a bullet in his brain, | 15 | ··/˘·˘/˘··/˘··· |
| They POST-MORTEM him, and try him, and they say he was insane; | 15 | ··/˘·········˘/ |
| But it very often happens that he'd lately got the sack, | 15 | ··/˘/˘/˘··/˘··· |
| And his onward move was owing to the shame of going back. | 15 | ··/˘··/˘····/˘· |
| Ah! my friend, you call it nonsense, and your upper lip is curled, | 15 | ······/˘··/˘··· |
| I can see that you have never worked your passage through the world; | 15 | ······/˘··/˘··· |
| But when fortune rounds upon you and the rain is on the track, | 15 | ··/˘··········· |
| You will learn the bitter meaning of the shame of going back; | 15 | ····/˘/˘····/˘· |
| Going home with empty pockets, | 8 | /˘··/˘/˘ |
| Going home hard-up; | 5 | /˘··· |
| Oh, you'll taste the bitter poison in humiliation's cup. | 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.