The Star Of Australasia Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDEDFF GGHBBIJJ KKFLLMMNNOO OPODQQOFOFIFOOOFFF ROROOOOFOO NNOOSTPORO ROOOFFR UOOVWVXYYFFOOOZOO AALLDDFFWe boast no more of our bloodless flag that rose from a nation's slime | A |
Better a shred of a deep dyed rag from the storms of the olden time | A |
From grander clouds in our peaceful skies' than ever were there before | B |
I tell you the Star of the South shall rise in the lurid clouds of war | B |
It ever must be while blood is warm and the sons of men increase | C |
For ever the nations rose in storm to rot in a deadly peace | C |
There comes a point that we will not yield no matter if right or wrong | D |
And man will fight on the battle field | E |
while passion and pride are strong | D |
So long as he will not kiss the rod and his stubborn spirit sours | F |
And the scorn of Nature and curse of God are heavy on peace like ours | F |
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There are boys out there by the western creeks who hurry away from school | G |
To climb the sides of the breezy peaks or dive in the shaded pool | G |
Who'll stick to their guns when the mountains quake | H |
to the tread of a mighty war | B |
And fight for Right or a Grand Mistake as men never fought before | B |
When the peaks are scarred and the sea walls crack | I |
till the furthest hills vibrate | J |
And the world for a while goes rolling back in a storm of love and hate | J |
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There are boys to day in the city slum and the home of wealth and pride | K |
Who'll have one home when the storm is come and fight for it side by side | K |
Who'll hold the cliffs 'gainst the armoured hells | F |
that batter a coastal town | L |
Or grimly die in a hail of shells when the walls come crashing down | L |
And many a pink white baby girl the queen of her home to day | M |
Shall see the wings of the tempest whirl the mist of our dawn away | M |
Shall live to shudder and stop her ears to the thud of the distant gun | N |
And know the sorrow that has no tears when a battle is lost and won | N |
As a mother or wife in the years to come will kneel wild eyed and white | O |
And pray to God in her darkened home for the men in the fort to night' | O |
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But oh if the cavalry charge again as they did when the world was wide | O |
'Twill be grand in the ranks of a thousand men | P |
in that glorious race to ride | O |
And strike for all that is true and strong | D |
for all that is grand and brave | Q |
And all that ever shall be so long as man has a soul to save | Q |
He must lift the saddle and close his wings' and shut his angels out | O |
And steel his heart for the end of things | F |
who'd ride with a stockman scout | O |
When the race they ride on the battle track and the waning distance hums | F |
And the shelled sky shrieks or the rifles crack | I |
like stockwhip amongst the gums | F |
And the straight' is reached and the field is gapped' | O |
and the hoof torn sward grows red | O |
With the blood of those who are handicapped with iron and steel and lead | O |
And the gaps are filled though unseen by eyes | F |
with the spirit and with the shades | F |
Of the world wide rebel dead who'll rise and rush with the Bush Brigades | F |
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All creeds and trades will have soldiers there | R |
give every class its due | O |
And there'll be many a clerk to spare for the pride of the jackeroo | R |
They'll fight for honour and fight for love and a few will fight for gold | O |
For the devil below and for God above as our fathers fought of old | O |
And some half blind with exultant tears and some stiff lipped stern eyed | O |
For the pride of a thousand after years and the old eternal pride | O |
The soul of the world they will feel and see | F |
in the chase and the grim retreat | O |
They'll know the glory of victory and the grandeur of defeat | O |
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The South will wake to a mighty change ere a hundred years are done | N |
With arsenals west of the mountain range and every spur its gun | N |
And many a rickety son of a gun on the tides of the future tossed | O |
Will tell how battles were really won that History says were lost | O |
Will trace the field with his pipe and shirk | S |
the facts that are hard to explain | T |
As grey old mates of the diggings work the old ground over again | P |
How this was our centre and this a redoubt | O |
and that was a scrub in the rear | R |
And this was the point where the guards held out | O |
and the enemy's lines were here ' | - |
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They'll tell the tales of the nights before | R |
and the tales of the ship and fort | O |
Till the sons of Australia take to war as their fathers took to sport | O |
Their breath come deep and their eyes grow bright | O |
at the tales of our chivalry | F |
And every boy will want to fight no matter what cause it be | F |
When the children run to the doors and cry | R |
Oh mother the troops are come ' | - |
And every heart in the town leaps high at the first loud thud of the drum | U |
They'll know apart from its mystic charm what music is at last | O |
When proud as a boy with a broken arm the regiment marches past | O |
And the veriest wreck in the drink fiend's clutch | V |
no matter how low or mean | W |
Will feel when he hears the march a touch | V |
of the man that he might have been | X |
And fools when the fiends of war are out and the city skies aflame | Y |
Will have something better to talk about than an absent woman's shame | Y |
Will have something nobler to do by far than jest at a friend's expense | F |
Or blacken a name in a public bar or over a backyard fence | F |
And this you learn from the libelled past | O |
though its methods were somewhat rude | O |
A nation's born where the shells fall fast or its lease of life renewed | O |
We in part atone for the ghoulish strife | Z |
and the crimes of the peace we boast | O |
And the better part of a people's life in the storm comes uppermost | O |
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The self same spirit that drives the man to the depths of drink and crime | A |
Will do the deeds in the heroes' van that live till the end of time | A |
The living death in the lonely bush the greed of the selfish town | L |
And even the creed of the outlawed push is chivalry upside down | L |
'Twill be while ever our blood is hot while ever the world goes wrong | D |
The nations rise in a war to rot in a peace that lasts too long | D |
And southern nation and southern state aroused from their dream of ease | F |
Must sign in the Book of Eternal Fate their stormy histories | F |
Henry Lawson
(1)
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