Bashful Gleeson Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH IJIJ JJJJ KLKL MNMN JOJO JPJP DQDQ RCRC JSJT UVUVFROM HER HOME beyond the river in the parting of the hills | A |
Where the wattles fleecy blossom surged and scattered in the breeze | B |
And the tender creepers twined about the chimneys and the sills | A |
And the garden flamed with colour like an Eden through the trees | B |
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She would come along the gully where the ferns grew golden fair | C |
In the stillness of the morning like the spirit of the place | D |
With the sunshafts caught and woven in the meshes of her hair | C |
And the pink and white of heathbloom sweetly blended in her face | D |
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She was fair and small and slender limbed and buoyant as a bird | E |
Fresh as wild white dew dipped violets where the bluegum s shadow goes | F |
And no music like her laughter in the joyous bush was heard | E |
And the glory of her smile was as a sunbeam in a rose | F |
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Ben felt mighty at the windlass when she watched him hauling stuff | G |
And she asked him many questions What was that and Why was this | H |
Though his bashfulness was painful and he answered like a muff | G |
With his foolish My word Missie and his Beg your pardon Miss | H |
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He stood six foot in his bluchers stout of heart and strong of limb | I |
For her sake he would have tackled any man or any brute | J |
Of her half a score of suitors none could hold a light to him | I |
And he owned the richest hole along the Bullock Lead to boot | J |
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Yet while Charley Mack and Hogan and the Teddywaddy Skite | J |
Put in many pleasant evenings at The Bower Ben declined | J |
And remained a mere outsider and would spend one half the night | J |
Waiting hid among the trees to watch her shadow on the blind | J |
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He was laughed at on the river and as far as Kiley s Still | K |
They would tell of Bashful Gleeson who was gone on Kitty Dwyer | L |
But beyond defeating Hogan in a pleasant Sunday mill | K |
Gleeson s courtship went no further till the morning of the fire | L |
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We were called up in the darkness heard a few excited words | M |
In the garden down the flat a Chow was thumping on a gong | N |
There were shouts and cooeys on the hills and cries of startled birds | M |
But we saw the gum leaves redden and that told us what was wrong | N |
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O er The Bower the red cloud lifted as we sprinted for the punt | J |
Gleeson took the river for it in the scanty clothes he wore | O |
Dwyer was madly calling Kitty when we joined the men in front | J |
Whilst they questioned hoped and wondered Ben was smashing at the door | O |
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He went in amongst the smoke and found her room but some have said | J |
That he dared not pass the threshold that he lingered in distress | P |
Game to face the fire but not to pluck sweet Kitty from her bed | J |
And he knocked and asked her timidly to please get up and dress | P |
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Once again he called and waited till a keen flame licked his face | D |
Then a Spartan like devotion welled within the simple man | Q |
And he shut his eyes and ventured to invade the sacred place | D |
Found the downy couch of Kitty clutched an armful up and ran | Q |
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True or not we watched and waited and our hearts grew cold and sick | R |
Ere he came we barely caught him as the flame leapt in his hair | C |
He had saved the sheets a bolster and the blankets and the tick | R |
But we looked in vain for Kitty pretty Kitty wasn t there | C |
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And no wonder whilst we drenched him as he lay upon the ground | J |
And her mother wailed entreaties that it wrung our hearts to hear | S |
Hill came panting with the tidings that Miss Kitty had been found | J |
Clad in white and quite unconscious mid the saplings at the rear | T |
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We re not certain how it happened but I ve heard the women say | U |
That twas Kitty s work She saw him when the doctor left they vow | V |
Swathed in bandages and helpless and she kissed him where he lay | U |
Anyhow they re three years married and he isn t bashful now | V |
Edward George Dyson
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