The Captain Of The Push Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCC DDCCEE FFGHII CCJJKK LLMMAA CCNAC AAOOP AAFF AAQQR SSFFAA TTUUVV CWWAAs the night was falling slowly down on city town and bush | A |
From a slum in Jones's Alley sloped the Captain of the Push | A |
And he scowled towards the North and he scowled towards the South | B |
As he hooked his little finger in the corners of his mouth | B |
Then his whistle loud and shrill woke the echoes of the Rocks' | C |
And a dozen ghouls came sloping round the corners of the blocks | C |
- | |
There was nought to rouse their anger yet the oath that each one swore | D |
Seemed less fit for publication than the one that went before | D |
For they spoke the gutter language with the easy flow that comes | C |
Only to the men whose childhood knew the brothels and the slums | C |
Then they spat in turns and halted and the one that came behind | E |
Spitting fiercely on the pavement called on Heaven to strike him blind | E |
- | |
Let us first describe the captain bottle shouldered pale and thin | F |
For he was the beau ideal of a Sydney larrikin | F |
E'en his hat was most suggestive of the city where we live | G |
With a gallows tilt that no one save a larrikin can give | H |
And the coat a little shorter than the writer would desire | I |
Showed a more or less uncertain portion of his strange attire | I |
- | |
That which tailors know as trousers' known by him as bloomin' bags' | C |
Hanging loosely from his person swept with tattered ends the flags | C |
And he had a pointed sternpost to the boots that peeped below | J |
Which he laced up from the centre of the nail of his great toe | J |
And he wore his shirt uncollar'd and the tie correctly wrong | K |
But I think his vest was shorter than should be in one so long | K |
- | |
And the captain crooked his finger at a stranger on the kerb | L |
Whom he qualified politely with an adjective and verb | L |
And he begged the Gory Bleeders that they wouldn't interrupt | M |
Till he gave an introduction it was painfully abrupt | M |
Here's the bleedin' push me covey here's a something from the bush | A |
Strike me dead he wants to join us ' said the captain of the push | A |
- | |
Said the stranger I am nothing but a bushy and a dunce | C |
But I read about the Bleeders in the WEEKLY GASBAG once | C |
Sitting lonely in the humpy when the wind began to whoosh | N |
How I longed to share the dangers and the pleasures of the push | A |
Gosh I hate the swells and good 'uns I could burn 'em in their beds | C |
I am with you if you'll have me and I'll break their blazing heads ' | - |
- | |
Now look here ' exclaimed the captain to the stranger from the bush | A |
Now look here suppose a feller was to split upon the push | A |
Would you lay for him and fetch him even if the traps were round | O |
Would you lay him out and kick him to a jelly on the ground | O |
Would you jump upon the nameless kill or cripple him or both | P |
Speak or else I'll SPEAK ' The stranger answered My kerlonial oath ' | - |
- | |
Now look here ' exclaimed the captain to the stranger from the bush | A |
Now look here suppose the Bleeders let you come and join the push | A |
Would you smash a bleedin' bobby if you got the blank alone | F |
Would you break a swell or Chinkie split his garret with a stone | F |
Would you have a moll to keep yer like to swear off work for good ' | - |
Yes my oath ' replied the stranger My kerlonial oath I would ' | - |
- | |
Now look here ' exclaimed the captain to the stranger from the bush | A |
Now look here before the Bleeders let yer come and join the push | A |
You must prove that you're a blazer you must prove that you have grit | Q |
Worthy of a Gory Bleeder you must show your form a bit | Q |
Take a rock and smash that winder ' and the stranger nothing loth | R |
Took the rock and smash They only muttered My kerlonial oath ' | - |
- | |
So they swore him in and found him sure of aim and light of heel | S |
And his only fault if any lay in his excessive zeal | S |
He was good at throwing metal but we chronicle with pain | F |
That he jumped upon a victim damaging the watch and chain | F |
Ere the Bleeders had secured them yet the captain of the push | A |
Swore a dozen oaths in favour of the stranger from the bush | A |
- | |
Late next morn the captain rising hoarse and thirsty from his lair | T |
Called the newly feather'd Bleeder but the stranger wasn't there | T |
Quickly going through the pockets of his bloomin' bags ' he learned | U |
That the stranger had been through him for the stuff his moll' had earned | U |
And the language that he muttered I should scarcely like to tell | V |
Stars and notes of exclamation blank and dash will do as well | V |
- | |
In the night the captain's signal woke the echoes of the Rocks ' | - |
Brought the Gory Bleeders sloping thro' the shadows of the blocks | C |
And they swore the stranger's action was a blood escaping shame | W |
While they waited for the nameless but the nameless never came | W |
And the Bleeders soon forgot him but the captain of the push | A |
Still is laying' round in ballast for the nameless from the bush ' | - |
Henry Lawson
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about The Captain Of The Push poem by Henry Lawson
Best Poems of Henry Lawson