John Boyle O'reilly

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Prologue To Western Australia Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABCBDEDE FGFGEHEH IJIJKLKM NONOPQPQ RSRSTUTU

Nor gold nor silver are the words set hereA
Nor rich wrought chasing on design of artB
But rugged relics of an unknown sphereC
Where fortune chanced I played one time apartB
Unthought of here the critic blame or praiseD
These recollections all their faults atoneE
To hold the scenes I ve writ of men and waysD
Uncouth and rough as Austral ironstoneE
-
It may be I have left the higher gleamsF
Of skies and flowers unheeded or forgotG
It may be so but looking back it seemsF
When I was with them I beheld them notG
I was no rambling poet but a manE
Hard pressed to dig and delve with naught of easeH
The hot day through save when the evening's fanE
Of sea winds rustled through the kindly treesH
-
It may be so but when I think I smileI
At my poor hand and brain to paint the charmsJ
Of God s first blazoned canvas here the aisleI
Moonlit and deep of reaching gothic armsJ
From towering gum mahogany and palmK
And odorous jam and sandal there the growthL
Of arm long velvet leaves grown hoar in calmK
In calm unbroken since their luscious youthM
-
How can I show you all the silent birdsN
With strange metallic glintings on the wingO
Or how tell half their sadness in cold wordsN
The poor dumb lutes the birds that never singO
Of wondrous parrot greens and iris hueP
Of sensuous flower and of gleaming snakeQ
Ah what I see I long that so might youP
But of these things what picture can I makeQ
-
Sometime maybe a man will wander thereR
A mind God gifted and not dull and weakS
And he will come and paint that land so fairR
And show the beauties of which I but speakS
But in the hard sad days that there I spentT
My mind absorbed rude pictures these I showU
As best I may and just with this intentT
To tell some things that all folk may not knowU

John Boyle O'reilly



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