Jonah-s Luck Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCDCD EFEGHIHI HJHJKHKH EFEFELEL MIMDMHMH MHMHEBEB NHNHOPOP EQEQMRMR QQQQSKSK QQQQMHMH TUTUQVQV EWEWMXMX| OUT OF LUCK mate Have a liquor Hang it where s the use complaining | A |
| Take your fancy I m in funds now I can stand the racket Dan | B |
| Dump your bluey in the corner camp here for the night it s raining | A |
| Bet your life I m glad to see you glad to see a Daylesford man | B |
| Swell Correct Dan Spot the get up and I own this blooming shanty | C |
| Me the fellows christened Jonah at Jim Crow and Blanket Flat | D |
| Cause my luck was so infernal you remember me and Canty | C |
| Rough times those the very memory keeps a chap from getting fat | D |
| - | |
| Where d I strike it That s a yarn The fire s a comfort sit up nearer | E |
| Hoist your heels man take it easy till Kate s ready with the stew | F |
| Yes I ll tell my little story tain t a long one but it s queerer | E |
| Than those lies that Tullock pitched us on The Flat in | G |
| Fancy Phil a parson now He s smug as grease the Reverend Tullock | H |
| Yes he s big his wife and fam ly are a high and mighty lot | I |
| Didn t I say his jaw would keep him when he tired of punching mullock | H |
| Well it has he s made his pile here How d you like your whisky hot | I |
| - | |
| Luck Well now I like your cheek Dan You had luck there s no denying | H |
| I in thirty years had averaged just a wage of twenty bob | J |
| Why at Alma there I saw men making fortunes without trying | H |
| While for days I lived on possums and then had to take a job | J |
| Bah you talk about misfortune my ill luck was always thorough | K |
| Gold once ran away before me if I chased it for a week | H |
| I was starved at Tarrangower lived on tick at Maryborough | K |
| And I fell and broke my thigh bone at the start of Fiery Creek | H |
| - | |
| At Avoca Canty left me Jim you know was not a croaker | E |
| But he jacked the whole arrangement found we couldn t make a do | F |
| Said he loved me like a brother but twas rough upon a joker | E |
| When he d got to fight the devil and find luck enough for two | F |
| Jim was off I didn t blame him seeing what he d had to suffer | E |
| When Maginnis just beside us panned out fifty to the tub | L |
| We had pegged out hours before him and had struck another duffer | E |
| And each store upon the lead my lad had laid us up for grub | L |
| - | |
| After that I picked up Barlow but we parted at Dunolly | M |
| When we d struggled through at Alma Adelaide Lead and Ararat | I |
| See my luck was hard upon him he contracted melancholy | M |
| And he hung himself one morning in the shaft at Parrot Flat | D |
| Ding it No Where gold was getting I was on the job and early | M |
| Struck some tucker dirt at Armstrong s and just lived at Pleasant Creek | H |
| Always grafting like a good un never hopeless like or surly | M |
| Living partly on my earnings Dan but largely on my cheek | H |
| - | |
| Good old days they like to call them they were tough old days to many | M |
| I was through them and they left me still the choice to graft or beg | H |
| Left me gray and worn and wrinkled aged and stumped without a penny | M |
| With a chronic rheumatism and this darned old twisted leg | H |
| Other work That s true in plenty But you know the real old stager | E |
| Who has followed up the diggings how he hangs on to the pan | B |
| How he hates to leave the pipeclay Though you mention it I ll wager | E |
| That you never worked on top until you couldn t help it Dan | B |
| - | |
| Years went by On many fields I worked and often missed a meal and | N |
| Then I found Victoria played out and the yields were very slack | H |
| So I took a turn up Northward tried Tasmania and New Zealand | N |
| Dan I worked my passage over and I sneaked the journey back | H |
| Times were worse I made a cradle and went fossicking old places | O |
| But the Chows had been before me and had scraped the country bare | P |
| There was talk of splendid patches mongst the creeks and round the races | O |
| But twas not my luck to strike them and I think I lived on air | P |
| - | |
| Rough That s not the word So help me Dan I hadn t got a stiver | E |
| When I caved in one fine Sunday found I couldn t lift my head | Q |
| They removed me and the doctor said I d got rheumatic fever | E |
| And for seven months I lingered in a ward upon a bed | Q |
| Came out crippled feeling done up hopeless like and very lonely | M |
| And dead beat right down to bed rock as I d never felt before | R |
| Bitter Just Those hopeful years of honest graft had left me only | M |
| This bent leg and some asylum was the prospect I d in store | R |
| - | |
| You ll be knowing how I felt then cleaned out lame completely gravelled | Q |
| All the friends I d known were scattered widely north and east and west | Q |
| There seemed nothing there for my sort and no chances if I travelled | Q |
| No my digging days were over and I had to give it best | Q |
| Though twas hard I tried to meet it like a man in digger fashion | S |
| Twasn t good enough I funked it I was fairly on the shelf | K |
| Cursed my bitter fortune daily and was always in a passion | S |
| With the Lord sir and with everyone but mostly with myself | K |
| - | |
| I was older twenty years then than I am this blessed minute | Q |
| But I got a job one morning knapping rock at Ballarat | Q |
| Two and three for two inch metal You may say there s nothing in it | Q |
| To the man who s been through Eaglehawk and mined at Blanket Flat | Q |
| Wait you d better let me finish We and ill I bucked in gladly | M |
| But to get the tools I needed I was forced to pawn my swag | H |
| I d no hope of golden patches but I needed tucker badly | M |
| And this job I think just saved me being lumbered on the vag | H |
| - | |
| Fortune is a fickle party but in spite of all her failings | T |
| Don t revile her Dan as I did while you ve still a little rope | U |
| Well the heap that I was put on was some heavy quartz and tailings | T |
| That was carted from a local mine I think the Band of Hope | U |
| Take the lesson that is coming to your heart old man and hug it | Q |
| For I started on the heap with scarce a soul to call my own | V |
| And in less than twenty minutes I d raked out a bouncing nugget | Q |
| Scaling close on ninety ounces and just frosted round with stone | V |
| - | |
| How is that for high my hearty Miracle It was by thunder | E |
| After forty years of following the rushes up and down | W |
| Getting old and past all prospect and about to knuckle under | E |
| Struck it lucky knapping metal in the middle of a town | W |
| Pass the bottle Have another Soon we ll get the word from Kitty | M |
| She s a daisy cook I tell you Yes the public business pays | X |
| But my pile was made beforehand made it broking in the city | M |
| That s the yarn I pitch the neighbours Here s to good old now a days | X |
Edward George Dyson
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
About Jonah-s Luck
Jonah-s Luck is a poem by Edward George Dyson. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
Write your comment about Jonah-s Luck poem by Edward George Dyson
Best Poems of Edward George Dyson