Bourke Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCBB DDBB EEBB FFBB GGBB HHBB IIBB JJBB KKBB LLBB MMBBGGBB DDBB| I ve followed all my tracks and ways from old bark school to Leicester Square | A |
| I ve been right back to boyhood s days and found no light or pleasure there | A |
| But every dream and every track and there were many that I knew | B |
| They all lead on or they lead back to Bourke in Ninety one and two | B |
| No sign that green grass ever grew in scrubs that blazed beneath the sun | C |
| The plains were dust in Ninety two that baked to bricks in Ninety one | C |
| On glaring iron roofs of Bourke the scorching blinding sandstorms blew | B |
| And there was nothing beautiful in Ninety one and Ninety two | B |
| - | |
| Save grit and generosity of hearts that broke and healed again | D |
| The hottest drought that ever blazed could never parch the hearts of men | D |
| And they were men in spite of all and they were straight and they were true | B |
| The hat went round at trouble s call in Ninety one and Ninety two | B |
| - | |
| They drank when all is said and done they gambled and their speech was rough | E |
| You d only need to say of one He was my mate that was enough | E |
| To hint a bushman was not white nor to his Union straight and true | B |
| Would mean a long and bloody fight in Ninety one and Ninety two | B |
| - | |
| The yard behind the Shearers Arms was reckoned best of battle grounds | F |
| And there in peace and quietness they fought their ten or fifteen rounds | F |
| And then they washed the blood away and then shook hands as strong men do | B |
| And washed away the bitterness in Ninety one and Ninety two | B |
| - | |
| The Army on the grand old creek was mighty in those days gone by | G |
| For they had sisters who could shriek and brothers who could testify | G |
| And by the muddy waterholes they tackled sin till all was blue | B |
| They took our bobs and damned our souls in Ninety one and Ninety two | B |
| - | |
| By shanty bars and shearing sheds they took their toll and did their work | H |
| But now and then they lost their heads and raved of hotter hells than Bourke | H |
| The only message from the dead that ever came distinctly through | B |
| Was Send my overcoat to hell it came to Bourke in Ninety two | B |
| - | |
| I know they drank and fought and died some fighting fiends on blazing tracks | I |
| I don t remember that they lied or crawled behind each others backs | I |
| I don t remember that they loafed or left a mate to battle through | B |
| Ah men knew how to stick to men in Ninety one and Ninety two | B |
| - | |
| They re scattered wide and scattered far by fan like tracks north east and west | J |
| The cruel New Australian star drew off the bravest and the best | J |
| The Cape and Klondyke claim their bones the streets of London damned a few | B |
| And jingo cursed Australia mourns for Ninety one and Ninety two | B |
| - | |
| For ever westward in the land Australians hear and will not heed | K |
| The murmur of the board room and the sure and stealthy steps of greed | K |
| Bourke was a fortress on the track and garrisons were grim and true | B |
| To hold the spoilers from Out Back in Ninety one and Ninety two | B |
| - | |
| I hear it in the ridges lone and in the dread drought stricken wild | L |
| I hear at times a woman s moan the whimper of a hungry child | L |
| And let the cynics say the word a godless gang a drunken crew | B |
| But these were things I never heard in Ninety one and Ninety two | B |
| - | |
| - | |
| They say that things have changed out there and western towns have altered quite | M |
| They don t know how to drink and swear they ve half forgotten how to fight | M |
| They ve almost lost the strength to trust the faith in mateship to be true | B |
| The heart that grew in drought and dust in Ninety one and Ninety two | B |
| We ve learned to laugh the bitter laugh since then we ve travelled you and I | G |
| The sneaking little paragraph the dirty trick the whispered lie | G |
| Are known to us the little men whose souls are rotten through and through | B |
| We called them scabs and crawlers then in Ninety one and Ninety two | B |
| - | |
| And could I roll the summers back or bring the dead time on again | D |
| Or from the grave or world wide track call back to Bourke the vanished men | D |
| With mind content I d go to sleep and leave those mates to judge me true | B |
| And leave my name to Bourke to keep the Bourke of Ninety one and two | B |
Henry Lawson
(1)
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