The Sick Stockrider Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCDCDEFEFGHGHIJIJ KLKLMNON PQPQRSRS TUTUVWVW XYXY ZA2ZB2 VGVGC2C2C2C2 D2E2D2E2 F2G2F2G2H2I2D2I2 GYGJ2K2E2K2E2Hold hard Ned Lift me down once more and lay me in the shade | A |
Old man you've had your work cut out to guide | B |
Both horses and to hold me in the saddle when I sway'd | A |
All through the hot slow sleepy silent ride | B |
The dawn at Moorabinda was a mist rack dull and dense | C |
The sunrise was a sullen sluggish lamp | D |
I was dozing in the gateway at Arbuthnot's bound'ry fence | C |
I was dreaming on the Limestone cattle camp | D |
We crossed the creek at Carricksford and sharply through the haze | E |
And suddenly the sun shot flaming forth | F |
To southward lay Katawa with the sandpeaks all ablaze | E |
And the flush'd fields of Glen Lomond lay to north | F |
Now westward winds the bridle path that leads to Lindisfarm | G |
And yonder looms the double headed Bluff | H |
From the far side of the first hill when the skies are clear and calm | G |
You can see Sylvester's woolshed fair enough | H |
Five miles we used to call it from our homestead to the place | I |
Where the big tree spans the roadway like an arch | J |
'Twas here we ran the dingo down that gave us such a chase | I |
Eight years ago or was it nine last March | J |
- | |
'Twas merry in the glowing morn among the gleaming grass | K |
To wander as we've wandered many a mile | L |
And blow the cool tobacco cloud and watch the white wreaths pass | K |
Sitting loosely in the saddle all the while | L |
'Twas merry 'mid the blackwoods when we spied the station roofs | M |
To wheel the wild scrub cattle at the yard | N |
With a running fire of stockwhips and a fiery run of hoofs | O |
Oh the hardest day was never then too hard | N |
- | |
Aye we had a glorious gallop after Starlight and his gang | P |
When they bolted from Sylvester's on the flat | Q |
How the sun dried reed beds crackled how the flint strewn ranges rang | P |
To the strokes of Mountaineer and Acrobat | Q |
Hard behind them in the timber harder still across the heath | R |
Close beside them through the tea tree scrub we dash'd | S |
And the golden tinted fern leaves how they rustled underneath | R |
And the honeysuckle osiers how they crash'd | S |
- | |
We led the hunt throughout Ned on the chestnut and the grey | T |
And the troopers were three hundred yards behind | U |
While we emptied our six shooters on the bushrangers at bay | T |
In the creek with stunted box tree for a blind | U |
There you grappled with the leader man to man and horse to horse | V |
And you roll'd together when the chestnut rear'd | W |
He blazed away and missed you in that shallow watercourse | V |
A narrow shave his powder singed your beard | W |
- | |
In these hours when life is ebbing how those days when life was young | X |
Come back to us how clearly I recall | Y |
Even the yarns Jack Hall invented and the songs Jem Roper sung | X |
And where are now Jem Roper and Jack Hall | Y |
- | |
Aye nearly all our comrades of the old colonial school | Z |
Our ancient boon companions Ned are gone | A2 |
Hard livers for the most part somewhat reckless as a rule | Z |
It seems that you and I are left alone | B2 |
- | |
There was Hughes who got in trouble through that business with the cards | V |
It matters little what became of him | G |
But a steer ripp'd up MacPherson in the Cooraminta yards | V |
And Sullivan was drown'd at Sink or swim | G |
And Mostyn poor Frank Mostyn died at last a fearful wreck | C2 |
In the horrors at the Upper Wandinong | C2 |
And Carisbrooke the rider at the Horsefall broke his neck | C2 |
Faith the wonder was he saved his neck so long | C2 |
- | |
Ah those days and nights we squandered at the Logans' in the glen | D2 |
The Logans man and wife have long been dead | E2 |
Elsie's tallest girl seems taller than your little Elsie then | D2 |
And Ethel is a woman grown and wed | E2 |
- | |
I've had my share of pastime and I've done my share of toil | F2 |
And life is short the longest life a span | G2 |
I care not now to tarry for the corn or for the oil | F2 |
Or for the wine that maketh glad the heart of man | G2 |
For good undone and gifts misspent and resolutions vain | H2 |
'Tis somewhat late to trouble This I know | I2 |
I should live the same life over if I had to live again | D2 |
And the chances are I go where most men go | I2 |
- | |
The deep blue skies wax dusky and the tall green trees grow dim | G |
The sward beneath me seems to heave and fall | Y |
And sickly smoky shadows through the sleepy sunlight swim | G |
And on the very sun's face weave their pall | J2 |
Let me slumber in the hollow where the wattle blossoms wave | K2 |
With never stone or rail to fence my bed | E2 |
Should the sturdy station children pull the bush flowers on my grave | K2 |
I may chance to hear them romping overhead | E2 |
Adam Lindsay Gordon
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about The Sick Stockrider poem by Adam Lindsay Gordon
Best Poems of Adam Lindsay Gordon