The Passing Of Gundagai Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAABCDCCE FGHHG IJIHH HKHHK ALAML NONPO GQGGQ ADAAR PSPPT UOUUO VWVVW XYXXY IZIDZ A2B2AAB2 RDRRRI'll introduce a friend he said | A |
And if you've got a vacant pen | B |
You'd better take him in the shed | A |
And start him shearing straight ahead | A |
He's one of these here quiet men | B |
He never strikes that ain't his game | C |
No matter what the others try | D |
He goes on shearing just the same | C |
I never rightly knew his name | C |
We always call him 'Gundagai ' | E |
- | |
Our flashest shearer then had gone | F |
To train a racehorse for a race | G |
And while his sporting fit was on | H |
He couldn't be relied upon | H |
So Gundagai shore in his place | G |
- | |
Alas for man's veracity | I |
For reputations false and true | J |
This Gundagai turned out to be | I |
For strife and all round villainy | H |
The very worst I ever knew | H |
- | |
He started racing Jack Devine | H |
And grumbled when I made him stop | K |
The pace he showed was extra fine | H |
But all those pure bred ewes of mine | H |
Were bleeding like a butcher's shop | K |
- | |
He cursed the sheep he cursed the shed | A |
From roof to rafter floor to shelf | L |
As for my mongrel ewes he said | A |
I ought to get a razor blade | M |
And shave the blooming things myself | L |
- | |
On Sundays he controlled a school | N |
And played two up the livelong day | O |
And many a young confiding fool | N |
He shore of his financial wool | P |
And when he lost he would not pay | O |
- | |
He organised a shearers' race | G |
And touched me to provide the prize | Q |
His pack horse showed surprising pace | G |
And won hands down he was The Ace | G |
A well known racehorse in disguise | Q |
- | |
Next day the bruiser of the shed | A |
Displayed an opal tinted eye | D |
With large contusions on his head | A |
He smiled a sickly smile and said | A |
He's had a cut at Gundagai | R |
- | |
But just as we were getting full | P |
Of Gundagai and all his ways | S |
A telgram for Henry Bull | P |
Arrived Said he That's me all wool | P |
Let's see what this here message says | T |
- | |
He opened it his face grew white | U |
He dropped the shears and turned away | O |
It ran Your wife took bad last night | U |
Come home at once no time to write | U |
We fear she may not last the day | O |
- | |
He got his cheque I didn't care | V |
To dock him for my mangled ewes | W |
His store account we called it square | V |
Poor wretch he had enough to bear | V |
Confronted by such dreadful news | W |
- | |
The shearers raised a little purse | X |
To help a mate as shearers will | Y |
To pay the doctor and the nurse | X |
And if there should be something worse | X |
To pay the undertaker's bill | Y |
- | |
They wrung his hand in sympathy | I |
He rode away without a word | Z |
His head hung down in misery | I |
A wandering hawker passing by | D |
Was told of what had just occurred | Z |
- | |
Well that's a curious thing he siad | A2 |
I've known that feller all his life | B2 |
He's had the loan of this here shed | A |
I know his wife ain't nearly dead | A |
Because he hasn't got a wife | B2 |
- | |
- | |
You should have heard the whipcord crack | R |
As angry shearers galloped by | D |
In vain they tried to fetch him back | R |
A little dust along the track | R |
Was all they saw of Gundagai | R |
Banjo Paterson
(1)
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