Peter Simson's Farm Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AABB CCDD EEFF EEGG FFHH FFII JJFF FFKK EEEE EELL EEMJ NNFF HOEE PPQQ NNEE EEEE

Simson settled in the timber when his arm was strong and trueA
And his form was straight and limber and he wrought the long day throughA
In a struggle single handed and the trees fell slowly backB
Twenty thousand giants banded gainst a solitary jackB
-
Through the fiercest days of summer you might hear his keen axe ringC
And re echo in the ranges hear his twanging crosscut singC
There the great gums swayed and whispered and the birds were skyward blownD
As the circling hills saluted o er a bush king overthrownD
-
Clearing grubbing in the gloaming strong in faith the man descriedE
Heifers sleek and horses roaming in his paddocks green and wideE
Heard a myriad corn blades rustle in the breeze s soft caressF
And in every thew and muscle felt a joyous mightinessF
-
So he felled the stubborn forest hacked and hewed with tireless mightE
And a conqueror s peace went with him to his fern strewn bunk at nightE
Forth he strode next morn delighting in the duty to be doneG
Whistling shrilly to the magpies trilling carols to the sunG
-
Back the clustered scrub was driven and the sun fell on the landsF
And the mighty stumps were riven tween his bare brown corded handsF
One time flooded sometimes parching still he did the work of tenH
And his dog leg fence went marching up the hills and down againH
-
By the stony creek whose tiny streams slid o er the sunken bolesF
To their secret silent meetings in the shaded waterholesF
Soon a garden flourished bravely gemmed with flowers and cool and greenI
While about the hut a busy little wife was always seenI
-
Came a day at length when gazing down the paddock from his doorJ
Simson saw his horses grazing where the bush was long beforeJ
And he heard the joyous prattle of his children on the rocksF
And the lowing of the cattle and the crowing of the cocksF
-
There was butter for the market there was fruit upon the treesF
There were eggs potatoes bacon and a tidy lot of cheeseF
Still the struggle was not ended with the timber and the scrubK
For the mortgage is the toughest stump the settler has to grubK
-
But the boys grew big and bolder one a sturdy brown faced ladE
With his axe upon his shoulder loved to go to work like dadE
And another in the saddle took a bush bred native s prideE
And he boasted he could straddle any nag his dad could rideE
-
Though the work went on and prospered there was still hard work to doE
There were floods and droughts and bush fires and a touch of pleuro tooE
But they laboured and the future held no prospect to alarmL
All the settlers said They re stickers up at Peter Simson s farmL
-
One fine evening Pete was resting in the hush of coming nightE
When his boys came in from nesting with a clamorous delightE
Each displayed a tiny rabbit and the farmer eyed them o erM
Then he stamped it was his habit and he smote his knee and sworeJ
-
Two years later Simson s paddock showed dust coloured almost bareN
And too lean for hope of profit were the cows that pastured thereN
And the man looked ten years older Like the tracks about the placeF
Made by half a million rabbits were the lines on Simson s faceF
-
As he fought the bush when younger Simson stripped and fought againH
Fought the devastating hunger of the plague with might and mainO
Neither moping nor despairing hoping still that times would mendE
Stubborn browed and sternly facing all the trouble Fate could sendE
-
One poor chicken to the acre Simson s land will carry nowP
Starved the locusts have departed rust is thick upon the ploughP
It is vain to think of cattle or to try to raise a cropQ
For the farmer has gone under and the rabbits are on topQ
-
So the strong true man who wrested from the bush a homestead fairN
By the rabbits has been bested yet he does not know despairN
Though begirt with desolation though in trouble and in debtE
Though his foes pass numeration Peter Simson s fighting yetE
-
He is old too soon and failing but he s game to start anewE
And he tells his hopeless neighbours what the Gov mint s goin to doE
Both his girls are in the city seeking places with the restE
And his boys are tracking fortune in the melancholy WestE

Edward George Dyson



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