The Creek Of The Four Graves [late Version] Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNCOPQQR QSTUVWXPQYZA2B2 QC2VXD2QQQQPQ QE2F2QC2G2GC2C2VQG2C 2VQQH2XQC2Q HC2QJPTI2C2C2 QC2J2C2QC2QQK2C2C2L2 C2C2K2M2QC2QC2C2C2TQ N2L2GQQO2TSQD2X P2Q2C2Q2XC2QD2R2LS2C 2ST2U2QQQ M2QQC2QWV2TTW2QX2Y2Z 2L2A3YQ TB3QLC2K2QW2C2C2QQC2 QQC2 I2G2C3YC2B3C2Q2HC2D3 QQQC2W2QC2QC2M2QB3A settler in the olden times went forth | A |
With four of his most bold and trusted men | B |
Into the wilderness went forth to seek | C |
New streams and wider pastures for his fast | D |
Increasing flocks and herds O er mountain routes | E |
And over wild wolds clouded up with brush | F |
And cut with marshes perilously deep | G |
So went they forth at dawn at eve the sun | H |
That rose behind them as they journeyed out | I |
Was firing with his nether rim a range | J |
Of unknown mountains that like ramparts towered | K |
Full in their front and his last glances fell | L |
Into the gloomy forest s eastern glades | M |
In golden gleams like to the Angel s sword | N |
And flashed upon the windings of a creek | C |
That noiseless ran betwixt the pioneers | O |
And those new Apennines ran shaded o er | P |
With boughs of the wild willow hanging mixed | Q |
From either bank or duskily befringed | Q |
With upward tapering feathery swamp oaks | R |
The sylvan eyelash always of remote | Q |
Australian waters whether gleaming still | S |
In lake or pool or bickering along | T |
Between the marges of some eager stream | U |
Before them thus extended wilder grew | V |
The scene each moment and more beautiful | W |
For when the sun was all but sunk below | X |
Those barrier mountains in the breeze that o er | P |
Their rough enormous backs deep fleeced with wood | Q |
Came whispering down the wide up slanting sea | Y |
Of fanning leaves in the descending rays | Z |
Danced dazzlingly tingling as if the trees | A2 |
Thrilled to the roots for very happiness | B2 |
- | |
But when the sun had wholly disappeared | Q |
Behind those mountains O what words what hues | C2 |
Might paint the wild magnificence of view | V |
That opened westward Out extending lo | X |
The heights rose crowding with their summits all | D2 |
Dissolving as it seemed and partly lost | Q |
In the exceeding radiancy aloft | Q |
And thus transfigured for awhile they stood | Q |
Like a great company of archaeons crowned | Q |
With burning diadems and tented o er | P |
With canopies of purple and of gold | Q |
- | |
Here halting wearied now the sun was set | Q |
Our travellers kindled for their first night s camp | E2 |
A brisk and crackling fire which seemed to them | F2 |
A wilder creature than twas elsewhere wont | Q |
Because of the surrounding savageness | C2 |
And as they supped birds of new shape and plume | G2 |
And wild strange voice came by and up the steep | G |
Between the climbing forest growths they saw | C2 |
Perched on the bare abutments of the hills | C2 |
Where haply yet some lingering gleam fell through | V |
The wallaroo look forth Eastward at last | Q |
The glow was wasted into formless gloom | G2 |
Night s front then westward the high massing woods | C2 |
Steeped in a swart but mellow Indian hue | V |
A deep dusk loveliness lay ridged and heaped | Q |
Only the more distinctly for their shade | Q |
Against the twilight hearen a cloudless depth | H2 |
Yet luminous with sunset s fading glow | X |
And thus awhile in the lit dusk they seemed | Q |
To hang like mighty pictures of themselves | C2 |
In the still chambers of some vaster world | Q |
- | |
At last the business of the supper done | H |
The echoes of the solitary place | C2 |
Came as in sylvan wonder wide about | Q |
To hear and imitate the voices strange | J |
Within the pleasant purlieus of the fire | P |
Lifted in glee but to be hushed erelong | T |
As with the darkness of the night there came | I2 |
O er the adventurers each and all some sense | C2 |
Of danger lurking in its forest lairs | C2 |
- | |
But nerved by habit they all gathered round | Q |
About the well built fire whose nimble tongues | C2 |
Sent up continually a strenuous roar | J2 |
Of fierce delight and from their fuming pipes | C2 |
Drawing rude comfort round the pleasant light | Q |
With grave discourse they planned their next day s deeds | C2 |
Wearied at length their couches they prepared | Q |
Of rushes and the long green tresses pulled | Q |
From the bent boughs of the wild willows near | K2 |
Then the four men stretched out their tired limbs | C2 |
Under the dark arms of the forest trees | C2 |
That mixed aloft high in the starry air | L2 |
In arcs and leafy domes whose crossing curves | C2 |
Blended with denser intergrowth of sprays | C2 |
Were seen in mass traced out against the clear | K2 |
Wide gaze of heaven and trustful of the watch | M2 |
Kept near them by their master soon they slept | Q |
Forgetful of the perilous wilderness | C2 |
That lay around them like a spectral world | Q |
And all things slept the circling forest trees | C2 |
Their foremost boles carved from a crowded mass | C2 |
Less visible by the watch fire s bladed gleams | C2 |
That ran far out in the umbrageous dark | T |
Beyond the broad red ring of constant light | Q |
And even the shaded mountains darkly seen | N2 |
Their bluff brows looming through the stirless air | L2 |
Looked in their stillness solemnly asleep | G |
Yea thence surveyed the universe might have seemed | Q |
Coiled in vast rest only that one dark cloud | Q |
Diffused and shapen like a spider huge | O2 |
Crept as with scrawling legs along the sky | T |
And that the stars in their bright orders still | S |
Cluster by cluster glowingly revealed | Q |
As this slow cloud moved on high over all | D2 |
Peaceful and wakeful watched the world below | X |
- | |
- | |
Part II | P2 |
Meanwhile the cloudless eastern heaven had grown | Q2 |
More luminous and now the moon arose | C2 |
Above the hill when lo that giant cone | Q2 |
Erewhile so dark seemed inwardly aglow | X |
With her instilled irradiance while the trees | C2 |
That fringed its outline their huge statures dwarfed | Q |
By distance into brambles and yet all | D2 |
Clearly defined against her ample orb | R2 |
Out of its very disc appeared to swell | L |
In shadowy relief as they had been | S2 |
All sculptured from its surface as she rose | C2 |
Then her full light in silvery sequence still | S |
Cascading forth from ridgy slope to slope | T2 |
Chased mass by mass the broken darkness down | U2 |
Into the dense brushed valleys where it crouched | Q |
And shrank and struggled like a dragon doubt | Q |
Glooming a lonely spirit | Q |
- | |
His lone watch | M2 |
The master kept and wakeful looked abroad | Q |
On all the solemn beauty of the world | Q |
And by some sweet and subtle tie that joins | C2 |
The loved and cherished absent from our side | Q |
With all that is serene and beautiful | W |
In Nature thoughts of home began to steal | V2 |
Into his musings when on a sudden hark | T |
A bough cracks loudly in a neighbouring brake | T |
Against the shade side of a bending gum | W2 |
With a strange horror gathering to his heart | Q |
As if his blood were charged with insect life | X2 |
And writhed along in clots he stilled himself | Y2 |
And listened heedfully till his held breath | Z2 |
Became a pang Nought heard he silence there | L2 |
Had recomposed her ruffled wings and now | A3 |
Deep brooded in the darkness so that he | Y |
Again mused on quiet and reassured | Q |
- | |
But there again crack upon crack Awake | T |
O heaven have hell s worst fiends burst howling up | B3 |
Into the death doomed world Or whence if not | Q |
From diabolic rage could surge a yell | L |
So horrible as that which now affrights | C2 |
The shuddering dark Beings as fell are near | K2 |
Yea beings in their dread inherited hate | Q |
Awful vengeful as hell s worst fiends are come | W2 |
In vengeance For behold from the long grass | C2 |
And nearer brakes arise the bounding forms | C2 |
Of painted savages full in the light | Q |
Thrown outward by the fire that roused and lapped | Q |
The rounding darknesswith its ruddy tongues | C2 |
More fiercely than before as though even it | Q |
Had felt the sudden shock the air received | Q |
From those terrific cries | C2 |
- | |
On then they came | I2 |
And rushed upon the sleepers three of whom | G2 |
But started and then weltered prone beneath | C3 |
The first fell blow dealt down on each by three | Y |
Of the most stalwart of their pitiless foes | C2 |
But one again and yet again rose up | B3 |
Rose to his knees under the crushing strokes | C2 |
Of huge clubbed nulla nullas till his own | Q2 |
Warm blood was blinding him For he was one | H |
Who had with misery nearly all his days | C2 |
Lived lonely and who therefore in his soul | D3 |
Did hunger after hope and thirst for what | Q |
Hope still had promised him some taste at least | Q |
Of human good however long deferred | Q |
And now he could not even in dying loose | C2 |
His hold on life s poor chances still to come | W2 |
Could not but so dispute the terrible fact | Q |
Of death e en in death s presence Strange it is | C2 |
Yet oft tis seen that fortune s pampered child | Q |
Consents to death s untimely power with less | C2 |
Reluctance less despair than does the wretch | M2 |
Who hath been ever blown about the world | Q |
The straw like spo | B3 |
Charles Harpur
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about The Creek Of The Four Graves [late Version] poem by Charles Harpur
Best Poems of Charles Harpur