The City Of Dreadful Thirst Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABB CCBB DDE FFGG HHBB GGII JJKK LLBB MMNN FFGG OOFF KKBB| The stranger came from Narromine and made his little joke | A |
| They say we folks in Narromine are narrow minded folk | A |
| But all the smartest men down here are puzzled to define | B |
| A kind of new phenomenon that came to Narromine | B |
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| Last summer up in Narromine 'twas gettin' rather warm | C |
| Two hundred in the water bag and lookin' like a storm | C |
| We all were in the private bar the coolest place in town | B |
| When out across the stretch of plain a cloud came rollin' down | B |
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| We don't respect the clouds up there they fill us with disgust | D |
| They mostly bring a Bogan shower three raindrops and some dust | D |
| But each man simultaneous like to each man said 'I think | E |
| That cloud suggests it's up to us to have another drink ' | - |
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| There's clouds of rain and clouds of dust we've heard of them before | F |
| And sometimes in the daily press we read of 'clouds of war' | F |
| But if this ain't the Gospel truth I hope that I may burst | G |
| That cloud that came to Narromine was just a cloud of thirst | G |
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| It wasn't like a common cloud 'twas more a sort of haze | H |
| It settled down about the streets and stopped for days and days | H |
| And now a drop of dew could fall and not a sunbeam shine | B |
| To pierce that dismal sort of mist that hung on Narromine | B |
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| Oh Lord we had a dreadful time beneath that cloud of thirst | G |
| We all chucked up our daily work and went upon the burst | G |
| The very blacks about the town that used to cadge for grub | I |
| They made an organised attack and tried to loot the pub | I |
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| We couldn't leave the private bar no matter how we tried | J |
| Shearers and squatters union men and blacklegs side by side | J |
| Were drinkin' there and dursn't move for each was sure he said | K |
| Before he'd get a half a mile the thirst would strike him dead | K |
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| We drank until the drink gave out we searched from room to room | L |
| And round the pub like drunken ghosts went howling through the gloom | L |
| The shearers found some kerosene and settled down again | B |
| But all the squatter chaps and I we staggered to the train | B |
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| And once outside the cloud of thirst we felt as right as pie | M |
| But while we stopped about the town we had to drink or die | M |
| But now I hear it's safe enough I'm going back to work | N |
| Because they say the cloud of thirst has shifted on to Bourke | N |
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| But when you see these clouds about like this one over here | F |
| All white and frothy at the top just like a pint of beer | F |
| It's time to go and have a drink for if that cloud should burst | G |
| You'd find the drink would all be gone for that's a cloud of thirst | G |
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| We stood the man from Narromine a pint of half and half | O |
| He drank it off without a gasp in one tremendous quaff | O |
| I joined some friends last night he said in what they called a spree | F |
| But after Narromine 'twas just a holiday to me | F |
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| And now beyond the Western Range where sunset skies are red | K |
| And clouds of dust and clouds of thirst go drifting overhead | K |
| The railway train is taking back along the Western Line | B |
| That narrow minded person on his road to Narromine | B |
Banjo Paterson
(1)
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