The Australiad - (a Poem For Children.) Poem Rhyme Scheme

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'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
	-
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
	-
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
	-
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
	-
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
	-
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
	-
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
	-
'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
	-
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
	-
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
	-
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
	-
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
	-
Enough enough forbear to trace the record of the age	H2
Where elder nations are inscribed through each distressful page	H2
	-
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
	-
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
	-
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
	-
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

The Australiad - (a Poem For Children.) Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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