The Paroo River Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCB BBBB DBDB EBEB FBFB BBBB BBBB GBGB HIHI JBJB KLK MBMBIt was a week from Christmas time | A |
As near as I remember | B |
And half a year since in the rear | C |
We'd left the Darling timber | B |
- | |
The track was hot and more than drear | B |
The day dragged out for ever | B |
But now we knew that we were near | B |
Our camp the Paroo River | B |
- | |
With blighted eyes and blistered feet | D |
With stomachs out of order | B |
Half mad with flies and dust and heat | D |
We'd crossed the Queensland border | B |
- | |
I longed to hear a stream go by | E |
And see the circles quiver | B |
I longed to lay me down and die | E |
That night on Paroo River | B |
- | |
The nose bags heavy on each chest | F |
God bless one kindly squatter | B |
With grateful weight our hearts they pressed | F |
We only wanted water | B |
- | |
The sun was setting in a spray | B |
Of colour like a liver | B |
We'd fondly hoped to camp and stay | B |
That night by Paroo River | B |
- | |
A cloud was on my mate's broad brow | B |
And once I heard him mutter | B |
'What price the good old Darling now | B |
God bless that grand old gutter | B |
- | |
And then he stopped and slowly said | G |
In tones that made me shiver | B |
It cannot well be on ahead | G |
I think we've crossed the river | B |
- | |
But soon we saw a strip of ground | H |
Beside the track we followed | I |
No damper than the surface round | H |
But just a little hollowed | I |
- | |
His brow assumed a thoughtful frown | J |
This speech did he deliver | B |
I wonder if we'd best go down | J |
Or up the blessed river | B |
- | |
But where said I 's the blooming stream ' | - |
And he replied 'we're at it | K |
I stood awhile as in a dream | L |
Great Scott I cried is that it | K |
- | |
Why that is some old bridle track | M |
He chuckled Well I never | B |
It's plain you've never been Out Back | M |
This is the Paroo River | B |
Henry Lawson
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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