Bourke Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCBB DDBB EEBB FFBB GGBB HHBB IIBB JJBB KKBB LLBB MMBBGGBB DDBBI 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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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
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