Skeeta - An Old Servant's Tale Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Our Skeeta was married our Skeeta the tomboy and pet of the place	A
No more as a maiden we'd greet her no more would her pert little face	A
Light up the chill gloom of the parlour no more would her deft little hands	B
Serve drinks to the travel stained caller on his way to more southerly lands	B
No more would she chaff the rough drovers and send them away with a smile	C
No more would she madden her lovers demurely with womanish guile	C
The prince from the great Never Never with light touch of lips and of hand	D
Had come and enslaved her for ever a potentate bearded and tanned	D
From the land where the white mirage dances its dance of death over the plains	E
With the glow of the sun in his glances the lust of the West in his veins	E
	-
His talk of long drought stricken stretches when the tongue rattled dry on the lips	F
Of his fights with the niggers poor wretches as he sped on his perilous trips	F
A supple thewed desert bred rover with naught to commend him but this	G
That he was her idol her lover who'd fettered her heart with a kiss	G
	-
They were wed and he took her to Warren where she with his love was content	H
But town life to him was too foreign so back to the droving he went	H
A man away down on the border of Vic bought some cattle from Cobb	I
And gave Harry Parker the order to go to the Gulf for the mob	I
And he went for he held her love cheaper than his wish to re live the old life	J
Or his reason might have been deeper I called it deserting his wife	J
	-
Then one morning his horses were mustered the start on the journey was made	K
A clatter an oath through the dust heard was the last of the long cavalcade	K
As we stood by the stockyard assembled poor child how she strove to be brave	L
But yet I could see how she trembled at the careless farewell that he gave	L
We brought her back home on the morrow but none of us ever may learn	M
Of the fight that she fought to keep sorrow at bay till her husband's return	M
He had gone but the way of his going 'twas that which she dwelt on with pain	N
Careless kiss though there sure was no knowing when or where he might kiss her again	O
He had ridden away and had left her a woman in all but in years	P
Of her girlhood's gay hopes had bereft her and left in their place nought but tears	Q
	-
Yet still as the months passed a treasure was brought her by Love ere he fled	R
And garments of infantile measure she fashioned with needle and thread	R
She fashioned with linen and laces and ribbons a nest for her bird	S
While colour returned to her face as the bud of maternity stirred	S
It blossomed and died we arrayed it in all its soft splendour of white	T
And sorrowing took it and laid it in the earth whence it sprung out of sight	T
She wept not at all only whitened as Death in his pitiless quest	U
Leant over her pillow and tightened the throat of the child at her breast	U
	-
She wept not her soul was too tired for waiting is harrowing work	V
And then I bethought me and wired away to the agents in Bourke	V
'Twas little enough I could glean there 'Twas little enough that they knew	W
They answered he hadn't been seen there but might in a week perchance two	W
She wept not at all only whitened with staring too long at the night	T
There was only one time when she brightened that time when red dust hove in sight	T
And settled and hung on the backs of the cattle and altered their spots	X
While the horses swept up with their packs of blue blankets and jingling pots	X
She always was set upon meeting those boisterous cattle men lest	U
Her husband had sent her a greeting by one of them in from the West	U
Not one of them ever owned to him or seemed to remember the name	Y
The truth was they all of them knew him but wouldn't tell her of his shame	Y
But never though long time she waited did her faith in the faithless grow weak	Z
And each time the outer door grated an eager flush sprang to her cheek	Z
	-
'Twasn't he and it died with a flicker and then what I had long dreaded came	Y
I was serving two drovers with liquor when one of them mentioned his name	Y
Oh yes said the other one winking on the Paroo I saw him he'd been	A2
In Eulo a fortnight then drinking and driving about with The Queen	B2
While the bullocks were going to glory and his billet was not worth a G d	C2
I told him to cut short the story as I pulled to the door with a slam	D2
Too late for the words were loud spoken and Skeeta was out in the hall	E2
Then I knew that a girl's heart was broken as I heard a low cry and a fall	E2
	-
And then came a day when the doctor went home for the truth was avowed	F2
And I knew that my hands which had rocked her in childhood would fashion her shroud	F2
I knew we should tenderly carry and lay her where many more lie	G2
Ah why will the girls love and marry when men are not worthy ah why	G2
She lay there a dying our Skeeta not e'en did she stir at my kiss	G
In the next world perchance we may greet her but never ah never in this	G
Like the last breath of air in a gully that sighs as the sun slowly dips	F
To the knell of a heart beating dully her soul struggled out on her lips	F
But she lifted great eyelids and pallid while once more beneath them there glowed	H2
The fire of Love as she rallied at sound of hoofs out on the road	H2
They rang sharp and clear on the metal they ceased at the gate in the lane	N
A pause and we heard the beats settle in long swinging cadence again	O
With a rattle a rush and a clatter the rider came down by the store	I2
And neared us but what did it matter he never pulled rein at the door	I2
But over the brow of the hill he sped on with a low muffled roll	J2
'Twas only young Smith on his filly he passed and so too did her soul	J2
	-
Weeks after I went down one morning to trim the white rose that had grown	K2
And clasped with its tender adorning the plain little cross of white stone	K2
In the lane dusty drovers were wheeling dull cattle with turbulent sound	L2
But I paused as I saw a man kneeling with his forehead pressed low on the mound	L2
Already he'd heard me approaching and slowly I saw him up rise	M2
And move away sullenly slouching his cabbage tree over his eyes	M2
I never said anything to him as he mounted his horse at the gate	N2
He didn't know me but I knew him the husband who came back too late	N2

Barcroft Boake

Skeeta - An Old Servant's Tale Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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