The Australiad - (a Poem For Children.) Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCCDDEEFF GGDDHI JJKKLM AANNAAII NNOOPP QQRRSSTT UUAA GGVW NNAAXXYYZZEE DDA2A2 NNYYAAB2B2FF C2C2D2D2E2E2F2DG2G2 H2H2 I2I2 DDABDDUUJ2J2 K2K2LMAANNL2M2UUC2C2 N2N2J2J2DD G2G2O2O2P2P2Q2'Twas brave De Quiros bent the knee before the King of Spain | A |
And sire he said I bring thy ships in safety home again | B |
From seas unsailed of mariner in all the days of yore | C |
Where reefs and islets insect built arise from ocean's floor | C |
And sire the land we sought is found its coasts lay full in view | D |
When homeward bound perforce I sailed at the bidding of my crew | D |
Terra Australis called I it and linked therewith the name | E |
Of Him who guideth as of old in cloud and starry flame | E |
And grant me ships again he said and southward let me go | F |
A new Peru may wait thee there another Mexico | F |
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A threadbare suitor year by year There is a land said he | G |
While King and Court grew weary of this old man of the sea | G |
For there were heretics to burn and Holland to subdue | D |
And England to be humbled which this day remains to do | D |
O land he named but never saw his memory revere | H |
The gallant disappointed heart let him be honoured here | I |
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Meanwhile the hardy Dutchmen came as ancient charts attest | J |
Hartog and Nuyts and Carpenter and Tasman and the rest | J |
But found not forests rich in spice nor market for their wares | K |
Nor servile tribes to toil o'ertasked 'mid pestilential airs | K |
And deemed it scarce worth while to claim so poor a continent | L |
But with their slumberous tropic isles thenceforward were content | M |
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And then came Dampier who erewhile upon the Spanish Main | A |
For silver laden galleons lurked and great was his disdain | A |
Good ships beside from France were sent good ships and gallant crews | N |
With Marion and D'Entrecasteaux and the far famed La Perouse | N |
And still of all who sought or saw the voyages were vain | A |
Australia ne'er was farm for boers nor mission field for Spain | A |
Nor fleur de lys nor tricolor was ever planted here | I |
And Britain's flag to hoist was not for hands of buccaneer | I |
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But to our lovely Eastern coast led by auspicious stars | N |
Came Cook in the Endeavour with his little band of tars | N |
Who straight on shores of Botany old England's ensign reared | O |
With mighty dim of musketry and noise of them that cheered | O |
And none of all his noble fleets who sixty years was king | P |
A prize so goodly ever brought as that small ship did bring | P |
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And who was he the FIRST to find Australia passing fair | Q |
One who aforetime well had served his country otherwhere | Q |
Who to the heights of Abraham up the swift St Lawrence led | R |
When on the moonless battle eve the midnight oarsmen sped | R |
No worthier captain British deck before or since hath trod | S |
He never feared the face of man but feared alway his God | S |
His crew he cherished tenderly and kept his honour bright | T |
For with the helpless blacks he dealt as if they had been white | T |
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A boy erewhile of lowly birth self taught a poor man's son | U |
But a hero and a gentleman if ever there was one | U |
And when at last by savage hands on wild Owyhee slain | A |
He left a deathless memory a name without a stain | A |
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'Tis but a hundred years ago as nearly as may be | G |
Since good King George's vessel first anchored in Botany | G |
A hundred years Yet oh how many changes there have been | V |
Unclasp thy volume History and say what thou hast seen | W |
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Old England and her colonies stand face to face as foes | N |
And now their orators inveigh and now their armies close | N |
In vain our mother land for once thy sword is drawn in vain | A |
Allies and enemies alike thy children are the slain | A |
Though save as victor never 'twas thy wont to quit the field | X |
Relenting filled thy valiant heart and thou wast fain to yield | X |
Ah well for loss of those fair States might King and Commons mourn | Y |
There lay in south a goodly bough from England's rose tree torn | Y |
But now how deep its roots have struck how stately stands the stem | Z |
How lovely on its branches leaf and flower and dewy gem | Z |
New life from that sore severance to our sister scion came | E |
God speed thee young America we glory in thy fame | E |
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The storm that shook the Western World now eastward breaks anew | D |
And oh how black the tempest is which blotteth out the blue | D |
And over thee ill fortuned France what floods resistless roll | A2 |
A tidal wave of blood no pitying planet may control | A2 |
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Like Samson toiling blind and bound to furnish food for those | N |
Who light withheld and liberty and mocked at all his woes | N |
So have thy people held their peace so laboured so have borne | Y |
The burden serfdom ever bears the sorrow and the scorn | Y |
But as with groping giant hands he seized the pillars twain | A |
And made Philistia's land one house of mourning for the slain | A |
So rise they frenzied at the last by centuries of wrong | B2 |
And wreak a vengeance dreadful as their sufferings have been long | B2 |
The vile Bastille is overthrown the Monarchy lies low | F |
The fetters of the Feudal Age are broken at a blow | F |
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Of Poland parted for a prey dire Nemesis shall tell | C2 |
When o'er the dead in Cracow's vault shall ring Oppression's knell | C2 |
Now Erin from her Sister Isle awhile was fain to part | D2 |
For Strongbow's arrow rankled long within her wounded heart | D2 |
And long by desecrated fane and fireless hearth she wailed | E2 |
Where brutal Ireton's Herod host their murderous pikes had trailed | E2 |
Here shine the names she holdeth dear and prize them well she may | F2 |
Past soldiers of a Frankish prince or peers of Castlereagh | D |
The gifted ones who pled for her 'gainst bigotry and pride | G2 |
The gallant ones who died for her when young Fitzgerald died | G2 |
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Enough enough forbear to trace the record of the age | H2 |
Where elder nations are inscribed through each distressful page | H2 |
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But hearken how for once at least without an army's aid | I2 |
A people's lines the lines of her who holds the South were laid | I2 |
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Five thousand leagues of ocean 'twixt the old home and the new | D |
And lodging strait and scanty fare the weary voyage through | D |
And toil and hardship safely past and crossed the perilous main | A |
Never to tread on English ground 'mid English friends again | B |
Yet men were found to dare it all men ay and women too | D |
Not only those exiled perforce who oftimes rose anew | D |
Out cast upon new earth with hope and heart and vigour given | U |
By fresh surroundings and His grace who bids the lost to Heaven | U |
The brave the fair the gently born and Labour's life long thrall | J2 |
Within those circling seas of ours there was a place for all | J2 |
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For patient hands the woods to fell the new formed fields to till | K2 |
The huts to build the scanty flocks and herds to guard from ill | K2 |
For bolder spirits to forsake the sea board settlement | L |
And learn the secret of the land where never white man went | M |
Through mountain pass and forest dark and wide unsheltered plain | A |
Through fiery heat of summer and through frost and flood and rain | A |
Unheeding thirst or hunger or the shower of savage spears | N |
What soldiers e'er were braver than Australian pioneers | N |
What though it was by axe and plough and miner's oft edged tool | L2 |
And tending sheep and kine through weary years of hardship full | M2 |
The only victories we boast were by our fathers won | U |
The men who won them had prevailed where feats of arms were done | U |
Three generations born of her our Country now can tell | C2 |
And son and sire and grandsire all in turn have served her well | C2 |
Not only with the sinewy arm the hardened hand of toil | N2 |
That wrest their wealth from rifted rock and forest cumbered soil | N2 |
By love of order and of law by proferred boon to all | J2 |
Of learning in the township school and in the college hall | J2 |
By liberal leisure well bestowed for sports of land and wave | D |
And by the faith preserved to us God to the Elders gave | D |
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And now Britannia's household send her greetings from beside | G2 |
The icy streams of Canada and islands scattered wide | G2 |
Betwixt the two Americas from Africa's sea marge | O2 |
And where the race of Aurungzebe held empire rich and large | O2 |
And where amid New Zealand fern the English skylarks build | P2 |
And rosy children's sun burnt hands with English flowers are filled | P2 |
And from | Q2 |
Mary Hannay Foott
(1)
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