The Dukite Snake Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Well mate you ve asked about a fellow	A
You met to day in a black and yellow	A
Chain gang suit with a peddler s pack	B
Or with some such burden strapped to his back	B
Did you meet him square No passed you by	C
Well if you had and had looked in his eye	C
You d have felt for your irons then and there	D
For the light in his eye is a madman s glare	D
Ay mad poor fellow I know him well	E
And if you re not sleepy just yet I ll tell	E
His story a strange one as ever you heard	F
Or read but I ll vouch for it every word	F
	-
You just wait a minute mate I must see	G
How that damper s doing and make some tea	G
You smoke That s good for there s plenty of weed	H
In that wallaby skin Does your horse feed	H
In the hobbles Well he s got good feed here	I
And my own old bush mare won t interfere	J
Done with that meat Throw it there to the dogs	K
And fling on a couple of banksia logs	L
	-
And now for the story That man who goes	M
Through the bush with the pack and the convict s clothes	N
Has been mad for years but he does no harm	O
And our lonely settlers feel no alarm	O
When they see or meet him Poor Dave Sloane	P
Was a settler once and a friend of my own	P
Some eight years back in the spring of the year	J
Dave came from Scotland and settled here	I
A splendid young fellow he was just then	Q
And one of the bravest and truest men	Q
That I ever met he was kind as a woman	R
To all who needed a friend and no man	S
Not even a convict met with his scorn	T
For David Sloane was a gentleman born	T
Ay friend a gentleman though it sounds queer	J
There s plenty of blue blood flowing out here	I
And some younger sons of your upper ten	Q
Can be met with here first rate bushmen	Q
Why friend I Bah curse that dog you see	G
This talking so much has affected me	G
	-
Well Sloane came here with an axe and a gun	R
He bought four miles of a sandal wood run	R
This bush at that time was a lonesome place	U
So lonesome the sight of a white man s face	U
Was a blessing unless it came at night	V
And peered in your hut with the cunning fright	V
Of a runaway convict and even they	W
Were welcome for talk s sake while they could stay	W
Dave lived with me here for a while and learned	X
The tricks of the bush how the snare was laid	Y
In the wallaby track how traps were made	Y
How possums and kangaroo rats were killed	Z
And when that was learned I helped him to build	Z
From mahogany slabs a good bush hut	A2
And showed him how sandal wood logs were cut	A2
I lived up there with him days and days	B2
For I loved the lad for his honest ways	B2
I had only one fault to find at first	C2
Dave worked too hard for a lad who was nursed	C2
As he was in idleness it was strange	D2
How he cleared that sandal wood off his range	D2
From the morning light till the light expired	E2
He was always working he never tired	F
Till at length I began to think his will	F2
Was too much settled on wealth and still	F2
When I looked at the lad s brown face and eye	C
Clear open my heart gave such thought the lie	C
But one day for he read my mind he laid	Y
His hand on my shoulder Don t be afraid	Y
Said he that I m seeking alone for pelf	G2
I work hard friend but tis not for myself	G2
	-
And he told me then in his quiet tone	P
Of a girl in Scotland who was his own	P
His wife twas for her twas all he could say	W
And his clear eye brimmed as he turned away	W
After that he told me the simple tale	H2
They had married for love and she was to sail	H2
For Australia when he wrote home and told	I2
The oft watched for story of finding gold	I2
	-
In a year he wrote and his news was good	J2
He had bought some cattle and sold his wood	J2
He said Darling I ve only a hut but come	K2
Friend a husband s heart is a true wife s home	L2
And he knew she d come Then he turned his hand	M2
To make neat the house and prepare the land	M2
For his crops and vines and he made that place	U
Put on such a smiling and homelike face	U
That when she came and he showed her round	N2
His sandal wood and his crops in the ground	N2
And spoke of the future they cried for joy	O2
The husband s arm clasping his wife and boy	O2
	-
Well friend if a little of heaven s best bliss	P2
Ever comes from the upper world to this	P2
It came into that manly bushman s life	G2
And circled him round with the arms of his wife	G2
God bless that bright memory Even to me	G
A rough lonely man did she seem to be	G
While living an angel of God s pure love	G2
And now I could pray to her face above	G2
And David he loved her as only a man	S
With a heart as large as was his heart can	S
I wondered how they could have lived apart	Q2
For he was her idol and she his heart	Q2
	-
Friend there isn t much more of the tale to tell	E
I was talking of angels awhile since Well	E
Now I ll change to a devil ay to a devil	R2
You needn t start if a spirit of evil	R2
Ever came to this world its hate to slake	B
One mankind it came as a Dukite Snake	B
	-
Like Like the pictures you ve seen of Sin	S2
A long red snake as if what was within	S2
Was fire that gleamed through his glistening skin	S2
And his eyes if you could go down to hell	E
And come back to your fellows here and tell	E
What the fire was like you could find no thing	B
Here below on the earth or up in the sky	B
To compare it to but a Dukite s eye	B
	-
Now mark you these Dukites don t go alone	P
There s another near when you see but one	R
And beware you of killing that one you see	G
Without finding the other for you may be	G
More than twenty miles from the spot that night	V
When camped but you re tracked by the lone Dukite	V
That will follow your trail like Death or Fate	V
And kill you as sure as you killed its mate	V
	-
Well poor Dave Sloane had his young wife here	I
Three months twas just this time of the year	J
He had teamed some sandal wood to the Vasse	G
And was homeward bound when he saw in the grass	G
A long red snake he had never been told	V
Of the Dukite s ways he jumped to the road	V
And smashed its flat head with the bullock goad	V
	-
He was proud of the red skin so he tied	V
Its tail to the cart and the snake s blood dyed	V
The bush on the path he followed that night	V
	-
He was early home and the dead Dukite	V
Was flung at the door to be skinned next day	V
At sunrise next morning he started away	V
To hunt up his cattle A three hours ride	V
Brought him back he gazed on his home with pride	V
And joy in his heart he jumped from his horse	G
And entered to look on his young wife s corse	G
And his dead child clutching his mother s clothes	G
As in fright and there as he gazed arose	G
From her breast where twas resting the gleaming head	V
Of the terrible Dukite as if it said	V
I ve had vengeance my foe you took all I had	V
	-
And so had the snake David Sloane was mad	V
I rode to his hut just by chance that night	V
And there on the threshold the clear moonlight	V
Showed the two snakes dead I pushed in the door	T2
With an awful feeling of coming woe	A
The dead was stretched on the moonlit floor	T2
The man held the hand of his wife his pride	V
His poor life s treasure and crouched by her side	V
O God I sank with the weight of the blow	A
	-
I touched and called him he heeded me not	V
So I dug her grave in a quiet spot	V
And lifted them both her boy on her breast	V
And laid them down in the shade to rest	V
Then I tried to take my poor friend away	V
But he cried so woefully Let me stay	V
Till she comes again that I had no heart	V
To try to persuade him then to part	V
From all that was left to him here her grave	G2
So I stayed by his side that night and save	G2
One heart cutting cry he uttered no sound	V
O God that wail like the wail of a hound	V
	-
Tis six long years since I heard that cry	B
But twill ring in my ears till the day I die	B
Since that fearful night no one has heard	V
Poor David Sloane utter sound or word	V
You have seen to day how he always goes	G
He s been given that suit of convict s clothes	G
By some prison officer On his back	B
You noticed a load like a peddler s pack	B
Well that s what he lives for when reason went	V
Still memory	G

John Boyle O'reilly

The Dukite Snake Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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