The Fate Of The Explorers (a Fragment) Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDD EEFFGGHH IIJJKLMMII NNOOPP QQRQ QQSSQQ QQTTUUQQ QQQQQQVV WXQQQQYY ZZA2A2IIB2B2| Set your face toward the darkness tell of deserts weird and wide | A |
| Where unshaken woods are huddled and low languid waters glide | A |
| Turn and tell of deserts lonely lying pathless deep and vast | B |
| Where in utter silence ever Time seems slowly breathing past | B |
| Silence only broken when the sun is flecked with cloudy bars | C |
| Or when tropic squalls come hurtling underneath the sultry stars | C |
| Deserts thorny hot and thirsty where the feet of men are strange | D |
| And eternal Nature sleeps in solitudes which know no change | D |
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| Weakened with their lengthened labours past long plains of stone and sand | E |
| Down those trackless wilds they wandered travellers from a far off land | E |
| Seeking now to join their brothers struggling on with faltering feet | F |
| For a glorious work was finished and a noble task complete | F |
| And they dreamt of welcome faces dreamt that soon unto their ears | G |
| Friendly greetings would be thronging with a nation s well earned cheers | G |
| Since their courage never failed them but with high unflinching soul | H |
| Each was pressing forward hoping trusting all should reach the goal | H |
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| Though he rallied in the morning long before the close of day | I |
| He had sunk the worn out hero fainting dying by the way | I |
| But with Death he wrestled hardly three times rising from the sod | J |
| Yet a little further onward o er the weary waste he trod | J |
| Facing Fate with heart undaunted still the chief would totter on | K |
| Till the evening closed about him till the strength to move was gone | L |
| Then he penned his latest writings and before his life was spent | M |
| Gave the records to his comrade gave the watch he said was lent | M |
| Gave them with his last commandments charging him that night to stay | I |
| And to let him lie unburied when the soul had passed away | I |
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| Through that night he uttered little rambling were the words he spoke | N |
| And he turned and died in silence when the tardy morning broke | N |
| Many memories come together whilst in sight of death we dwell | O |
| Much of sweet and sad reflection through the weary mind must well | O |
| As those long hours glided past him till the east with light was fraught | P |
| Who may know the mournful secret who can tell us what he thought | P |
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| Very lone and very wretched was the brave man left behind | Q |
| Wandering over leagues of waste land seeking hoping help to find | Q |
| Sleeping in deserted wurleys fearful many nightfalls through | R |
| Lest unfriendly hands should rob him of his hoard of wild nardoo | Q |
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| Ere he reached their old encampment ere the well known spot was gained | Q |
| Something nerved him something whispered that his other chief remained | Q |
| So he searched for food to give him trusting they might both survive | S |
| Till the aid so long expected from the cities should arrive | S |
| So he searched for food and took it to the gunyah where he found | Q |
| Silence broken by his footfalls death and darkness on the ground | Q |
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| Weak and wearied with his journey there the lone survivor stooped | Q |
| And the disappointment bowed him and his heart with sadness drooped | Q |
| And he rose and raked a hollow with his wasted feeble hands | T |
| Where he took and hid the hero in the rushes and the sands | T |
| But he like a brother laid him out of reach of wind and rain | U |
| And for many days he sojourned near him on that wild faced plain | U |
| Whilst he stayed beside the ruin whilst he lingered with the dead | Q |
| Oh he must have sat in shadow gloomy as the tears he shed | Q |
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| Where our noble Burke was lying where his sad companion stood | Q |
| Came the natives of the forest came the wild men of the wood | Q |
| Down they looked and saw the stranger he who there in quiet slept | Q |
| Down they knelt and o er the chieftain bitterly they moaned and wept | Q |
| Bitterly they mourned to see him all uncovered to the blast | Q |
| All uncovered to the tempest as it wailed and whistled past | Q |
| And they shrouded him with bushes so in death that he might lie | V |
| Like a warrior of their nation sheltered from the stormy sky | V |
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| Ye must rise and sing their praises O ye bards with souls of fire | W |
| For the people s voice shall echo through the wailings of your lyre | X |
| And we ll welcome back their comrade though our eyes with tears be blind | Q |
| At the thoughts of promise perished and the shadow left behind | Q |
| Now the leaves are bleaching round them now the gales above them glide | Q |
| But the end was all accomplished and their fame is far and wide | Q |
| Though this fadeless glory cannot hide a grateful nation s grief | Y |
| And their laurels have been blended with the gloomy cypress leaf | Y |
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| Let them rest where they have laboured but my country mourn and moan | Z |
| We must build with human sorrow grander monuments than stone | Z |
| Let them rest for oh remember that in long hereafter time | A2 |
| Sons of Science oft shall wander o er that solitary clime | A2 |
| Cities bright shall rise about it Age and Beauty there shall stray | I |
| And the fathers of the people pointing to the graves shall say | I |
| Here they fell the glorious martyrs when these plains were woodlands deep | B2 |
| Here a friend a brother laid them here the wild men came to weep | B2 |
Henry Kendall
(1)
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