The Old Whim Horse Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCDCD EFFFGHGI HJHJKLKL FMFMGNGN COCOKPKP GDGDGQGQ GRGRGSGS CTCUCNCN GSGSGHGH GVGVGWGW| He's an old grey horse with his head bowed sadly | A |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp And with dim old eyes and a queer roll aft | B |
| With the off fore sprung and the hind screwed badly | A |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp And he bears all over the brands of graft | B |
| And he lifts his head from the grass to wonder | C |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp Why by night and day the whim is still | D |
| Why the silence is and the stampers' thunder | C |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp Sounds forth no more from the shattered mill | D |
| - | |
| In that whim he worked when the night winds bellowed | E |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp On the riven summit of Giant's Hand | F |
| And by day when prodigal Spring had yellowed | F |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp All the wide long sweep of enchanted land | F |
| And he knew his shift and the whistle's warning | G |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp And he knew the calls of the boys below | H |
| Through the years unbidden at night or morning | G |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp He had taken his stand by the old whim bow | I |
| - | |
| But the whim stands still and the wheeling swallow | H |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp In the silent shaft hangs her home of clay | J |
| And the lizards flirt and the swift snakes follow | H |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp O'er the grass grown brace in the summer day | J |
| And the corn springs high in the cracks and corners | K |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp Of the forge and down where the timber lies | L |
| And the crows are perched like a band of mourners | K |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp On the broken hut on the Hermit's Rise | L |
| - | |
| All the hands have gone for the rich reef paid out | F |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp And the company waits till the calls come in | M |
| But the old grey horse like the claim is played out | F |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp And no market's near for his bones and skin | M |
| So they let him live and they left him grazing | G |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp By the creek and oft in the evening dim | N |
| I have seen him stand on the rises gazing | G |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp At the ruined brace and the rotting whim | N |
| - | |
| The floods rush high in the gully under | C |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp And the lightnings lash at the shrinking trees | O |
| Or the cattle down from the ranges blunder | C |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp As the fires drive by on the summer breeze | O |
| Still the feeble horse at the right hour wanders | K |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp To the lonely ring though the whistle's dumb | P |
| And with hanging head by the bow he ponders | K |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp Where the whim boy's gone why the shifts don't come | P |
| - | |
| But there comes a night when he sees lights glowing | G |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp In the roofless huts and the ravaged mill | D |
| When he hears again all the stampers going | G |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp Though the huts are dark and the stampers still | D |
| When he sees the steam to the black roof clinging | G |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp As its shadows roll on the silver sands | Q |
| And he knows the voice of his driver singing | G |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp And the knocker's clang where the braceman stands | Q |
| - | |
| See the old horse take like a creature dreaming | G |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp On the ring once more his accustomed place | R |
| But the moonbeams full on the ruins streaming | G |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp Show the scattered timbers and grass grown brace | R |
| Yet HE hears the sled in the smithy falling | G |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp And the empty truck as it rattles back | S |
| And the boy who stands by the anvil calling | G |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp And he turns and backs and he takes up slack | S |
| - | |
| While the old drum creaks and the shadows shiver | C |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp As the wind sweeps by and the hut doors close | T |
| And the bats dip down in the shaft or quiver | C |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp In the ghostly light round the grey horse goes | U |
| And he feels the strain on his untouched shoulder | C |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp Hears again the voice that was dear to him | N |
| Sees the form he knew and his heart grows bolder | C |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp As he works his shift by the broken whim | N |
| - | |
| He hears in the sluices the water rushing | G |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp As the buckets drain and the doors fall back | S |
| When the early dawn in the east is blushing | G |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp He is limping still round the old old track | S |
| Now he pricks his ears with a neigh replying | G |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp To a call unspoken with eyes aglow | H |
| And he sways and sinks in the circle dying | G |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp From the ring no more will the grey horse go | H |
| - | |
| In a gully green where a dam lies gleaming | G |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp And the bush creeps back on a worked out claim | V |
| And the sleepy crows in the sun sit dreaming | G |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp On the timbers grey and a charred hut frame | V |
| Where the legs slant down and the hare is squatting | G |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp In the high rank grass by the dried up course | W |
| Nigh a shattered drum and a king post rotting | G |
| nbsp nbsp nbsp Are the bleaching bones of the old grey horse | W |
Edward George Dyson
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