A Psalm Of Councel Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AAABCCCDEEEB FFFBBBBBGGGB BBBBHHHBBBBB BBBBBBBBIIIB BBBBJJJBBBBB IIIKBBBBIIIB BBBIIIBLLLB IIIBMMMBNNOB BBBBPPPBBBBB MMMBIIIBQRRB IIIBBBBBSSSB| Though some good folks may take it ill | A |
| As trifling with parsonic frill | A |
| Thus saith the Lord to Jim and Bill | A |
| In admonition stern and straight | B |
| Ye hold from Me the brightest zones | C |
| The fairest realm this planet owns | C |
| Guarded on every side by Jones | C |
| And standing yet inviolate | D |
| So far so good And all the rest | E |
| Amounting to a racial test | E |
| May be compendiously express'd | E |
| In four short words Be Up To Date | B |
| - | |
| Australia is the unit There | F |
| This Commonwealth denotes your share | F |
| Ye have no loyalty to spare | F |
| In spite of all your Empire prate | B |
| For though the Motherland be good | B |
| Yet may some oddities intrude | B |
| Which it would be extremely rude | B |
| On your poor part to imitate | B |
| For instance if she should be lame | G |
| It's not included in the game | G |
| That you should limp behind the dame | G |
| By way of keeping Up To Date | B |
| - | |
| AUSTRALIA IS THE UNIT mind | B |
| With bounds unchangeably defin'd | B |
| A continent to you assign'd | B |
| That is the primary postulate | B |
| One 'angry cloth' to call your own | H |
| One scorn for every brand of drone | H |
| One slant eyed menace yours alone | H |
| Involving each ingredient State | B |
| The Commonwealth is paramount | B |
| City or province merely count | B |
| As streamlets from that central fount | B |
| Provided you are Up To Date | B |
| - | |
| If you should fail with such a start | B |
| To lead the world in Thought and Art | B |
| You're only fit to draw a cart | B |
| Which probably would be your fate | B |
| Now take the tip of Holy Writ | B |
| You won't survive unless you're fit | B |
| And something more than honest grit | B |
| Must go to make a people great | B |
| An Asiatic boundary fence | I |
| Is little better than pretence | I |
| Unless you're white in every sense | I |
| Unless in fact you're Up To Date | B |
| - | |
| Ye have an old man job on hand | B |
| One that will tax your sense and sand | B |
| The building of a nation grand | B |
| Is not accomplish'd while you wait | B |
| Put not your trust in men of girth | J |
| Who should have left this waken'd earth | J |
| About the period of their birth | J |
| And lived in times appropriate | B |
| For well a day their date is fled | B |
| Unearned Prerogative is dead | B |
| And Decency may reign instead | B |
| But only if you're Up To Date | B |
| - | |
| Touching your own forefathers' case | I |
| Ask History what has taken place | I |
| Since Dago legions made the pace | I |
| Say Anno Domini | K |
| Thrice has the Motherland been lost | B |
| Three separate times has she been boss'd | B |
| By enterprising foes who crossed | B |
| The German Sea or Dover Strait | B |
| While Bulldog Boys with clods and sticks | I |
| Fail'd to frustrate their knavish tricks | I |
| Hence Freedom's show was simply nix | I |
| Which came of not being Up To Date | B |
| - | |
| Till torn with feud or sick with rot | B |
| Or reconciled to Slavery's lot | B |
| And ripe for wiping off the slate | B |
| A parcel of anointed skunks | I |
| A crowd that views its work and funks | I |
| A push of despots scabs and drunks | I |
| I will by no means tolerate | B |
| Assyria therefore had to go | L |
| The Roman Greek and Ikey Mo | L |
| Gehenna gapes and rightly so | L |
| For nations drifting Out Of Date | B |
| - | |
| Look out for snakes among the grass | I |
| The noisy parish minded ass | I |
| The paltry devotee of Class | I |
| The preacher of sectarian hate | B |
| To give such pests an honest deal | M |
| With justice to the public weal | M |
| You may respect their narrow zeal | M |
| But count them foes within the gate | B |
| Should they as candidates appear | N |
| Dispose them in their proper sphere | N |
| That is to say upon their ear | O |
| Your statesmen must be Up To Date | B |
| - | |
| Beware of Thrift's insidious creed | B |
| That gospel of the moral weed | B |
| For when a race professes Greed | B |
| True aspiration must stagnate | B |
| But don't denounce with censure rash | P |
| The helpful medium known as cash | P |
| Nor swamp it in a futile splash | P |
| Blind to what may eventuate | B |
| Don't underrate what gonce can do | B |
| Yet always keep in easy view | B |
| The unpretentious six by two | B |
| Which places Mammon Out Of Date | B |
| - | |
| You can't do better than apply | M |
| The Reverend Hervey's rousing cry | M |
| Who bids you Set Your Standards High | M |
| And never pause nor deviate | B |
| This also you must realize | I |
| However high those standards rise | I |
| In ethic or artistic guise | I |
| Your potencies are adequate | B |
| By all round worth success is won | Q |
| And though you have no soft thing on | R |
| Be sure distinction waits upon | R |
| The nation that is Up To Date | B |
| - | |
| The point of honour is your crux | I |
| Run always straight and chance the ducks | I |
| For in this world of constant flux | I |
| The higher type must dominate | B |
| All fetish forms you may neglect | B |
| But vices that command respect | B |
| And virtues that are least correct | B |
| You will do well to cultivate | B |
| Confront the proud sustain the weak | S |
| And not for you shall Freedom shriek | S |
| Till falls your Kosciusko peak | S |
| Assuming you are Up To Date | B |
Joseph Furphy
(1)
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