Analysis of Henry Lawson's "The Roaring Days" (1896)

1. What the poem is saying?

This ballad by Henry Lawson tells how the gold-diggers came to the "land of promise . . . in the South". Lawson portrays their diverse origins, their rollicking manners and their dreams to find Eldorado. The brooding bush of Australian in the 1850s was stirred by their hearty greetings, that is, people in Australian were cheered and repopulated after decades of colonial agricultural stagnation. He highlights the famous Cobb and Co. coach network with the bringing of the mail. He waxes lyrical about the beauty of the Australian bush in sympathetic fallacy with the immigrants. He evokes in readers praise for those brave men in the roaring days who tried their luck and if they had bad luck would readily go elsewhere. Using the personal pronoun in an honest and open way, the poet idealises the gold diggers in a nostalgic call to national pride.

 

2. How is the poet saying it?

This 88 line ballad follows traditional abab format in eleven regular verses. The pattern is broken occasionally but not so badly as to disappoint nor does he maintain strictness so much that the regular form constricts the message. The regular beat is maintained. The diction is accessible all the way. There are happy rhymes and some pleasant transferred epithets, "cheery camp-fire", "the camps were dreaming". "Wild unrest" (22) is a felicitous echo of the title and theme. Phrases easy on the ear, like "good old songs" (38), do evoke reminiscence and nostalgia. His similes are familiar and helpful "clear as little bells" and "like diamonds in the light" (56) but are not cliched. Many onomatopoeic words like "clack . .. rattle ... flutter" help enormously to cinematise the gold fields in their business and variety. The sudden change of time frame in the last verse returns us to an elegiac but not melodramatic mood, to return the reader to the somewhat dreary present in comparison. It brackets off the rousing introduction in the first verse to drink a toast to these hearty and carefree pioneers.

 

Some gentle sarcasm is effective in "flaunting flag of progress" which echoes and replaces "the crimson flags" above the mine selections; the notion accepts the inevitable but returns us to the reality of nation-building.

 3. What is your response to the poem?

I like this poem. It is fun to read and gave me an insight into opinions and attitudes at the turn of the century. Lawson here shows he was a strong proponent of Federation and remains one of our leading colonial poets. He harkens to a past that he and his readers knew could not be recovered but could be shared as essential binding myths in our nation-building. The roaring days of old are highly idealised here but nonetheless worthy of recall even today as we enter the 21st century. Some of that carefree spirit and never-can-dare would do us good today as we become ever more neurotic about our future..

G Smith 21/7/00.

Read also Past carin', The Lights of Cobb & Co and other poems by Lawson, life story and dates, Lawson, biographical, When we went swimming, Ballad of the Drover, The Teams (1897). Grenfell his hometown, Lawson poetry index, Three more poems, On the Track (bush story). OzLit entry, contemporaries at gold diggings.

Return to my OZ poetry site and resources at Year 11 Poetry site.

Return to English Resources page

Page author: G. Smith Brisbane Qld. 22/7/00.