The First Surveyor Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCDDEEFF AAGHII JJKKLL MBNNOO BMPPQQ KKRRSS MBQQ| The opening of the railway line the Governor and all | A |
| With flags and banners down the street a banquet and a ball | A |
| Hark to 'em at the station now They're raising cheer on cheer | B |
| 'The man who brought the railway through our friend the engineer ' | C |
| They cheer his pluck and enterprise and engineering skill | D |
| 'Twas my old husband found the pass behind that big red hill | D |
| Before the engineer was born we'd settled with our stock | E |
| Behind that great big mountain chain a line of range and rock | E |
| A line that kept us starving there in weary weeks of drought | F |
| With ne'er a track across the range to let the cattle out | F |
| - | |
| 'Twas then with horses starved and weak and scarcely fit to crawl | A |
| My husband went to find a way across the rocky wall | A |
| He vanished in the wilderness God knows where he was gone | G |
| He hunted till his food gave out but still he battled on | H |
| His horses strayed 'twas well they did they made towards the grass | I |
| And down behind that big red hill they found an easy pass | I |
| - | |
| He followed up and blazed the trees to show the safest track | J |
| Then drew his belt another hole and turned and started back | J |
| His horses died just one pulled through with nothing much to spare | K |
| God bless the beast that brought him home the old white Arab mare | K |
| We drove the cattle through the hills along the new found way | L |
| And this was our first camping ground just where I live today | L |
| - | |
| Then others came across the range and built the township here | M |
| And then there came the railway line and this young engineer | B |
| He drove about with tents and traps a cook to cook his meals | N |
| A bath to wash himself at night a chain man at his heels | N |
| And that was all the pluck and skill for which he's cheered and praised | O |
| For after all he took the track the same my husband blazed | O |
| - | |
| My poor old husband dead and gone with never a feast nor cheer | B |
| He's buried by the railway line I wonder can he hear | M |
| When by the very track he marked and close to where he's laid | P |
| The cattle trains go roaring down the one in thirty grade | P |
| I wonder does he hear them pass and can he see the sight | Q |
| When whistling shrill the fast express goes flaming by at night | Q |
| - | |
| I think 'twould comfort him to know there's someone left to care | K |
| I'll take some things this very night and hold a banquet there | K |
| The hard old fare we've often shared together him and me | R |
| Some damper and a bite of beef a pannikin of tea | R |
| We'll do without the bands and flags the speeches and the fuss | S |
| We know who ought to get the cheers and that's enough for us | S |
| - | |
| What's that They wish that I'd come down the oldest settler here | M |
| Present me to the Governor and that young engineer | B |
| Well just you tell his Excellence and put the thing polite | Q |
| I'm sorry but I can't come down I'm dining out tonight | Q |
Banjo Paterson
(1)
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