[LINK] O/t: Henry Lawson Colonial Poet

[Stephen Loosley]

Every Man Should have a Rifle

By Henry Lawson  

So I sit and write and ponder, while the house is deaf and dumb,
Seeing visions "over yonder" of the war I know must come.

In the corner - not a vision - but a sign for coming days
Stand a box of ammunition and a rifle in green baize.

And in this, the living present, let the word go through the land,
Every tradesman, clerk and peasant should have these two things at hand.

No - no ranting song is needed, and no meeting, flag or fuss -
In the future, still unheeded, shall the spirit come to us!

Without feathers, drum or riot on the day that is to be,
We shall march down, very quiet, to our stations by the sea.

While the bitter parties stifle every voice that warns of war,
Every man should own a rifle and have cartridges in store!

Scheme	AABBCC DDEEFF
Poetic Form	
Closest metre	Iambic heptameter
Characters	746
Words	148
Sentences	7
Stanzas	2
Stanza Lengths	6, 6
Lines Amount	12
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Henry Lawson 1867 - 1922
 · 
Sydney

Henry Lawson 17 June 1867 - 2 September 1922 was an Australian writer and poet Along with his contemporary Banjo Paterson Lawson is among the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the colonial period