O'toole And Mcsharry Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABABCDCD EDEDCDCD FDFDCDCD GDFDCDCD FDFDHDCD IJIJCDCD FBFBHDCD KLKLCDCD FBFBCDCD MDMDCDCDIn the valley of the Lachlan where the perfume from the pines | A |
Fills the glowing summer air like incense spreading | B |
Where the silent flowing river like a bar of silver shines | A |
When the winter moon it pallid beams is shedding | B |
In a hut on a selection near a still and silent pool | C |
Lived two mates who used to shear and fence and carry | D |
The one was known near and far as Dandy Dan O'Toole | C |
And the other as Cornelius McSharry | D |
- | |
And they'd share each other's blankets and each other's horses ride | E |
And go off together shearing in the summer | D |
They would canter on from sunrise to the gloaming side by side | E |
While McSharry rode the Barb and Dan the Drummer | D |
And the boys along the Lachlan recognised it as a rule | C |
From Eugowra to the plains of Wanandarry | D |
That if ever love was stronger than McSharry's for O'Toole | C |
'Twas the love O'Toole extended to McSharry | D |
- | |
And their love might have continued and been constant to the end | F |
And they might have still been affable and jolly | D |
But they halted at a shanty where the river takes a bend | F |
And were waited on by Doolan's daughter Polly | D |
Now this pretty Polly Doolan was so natty neat and cool | C |
And so pleasant that they both agreed to tarry | D |
For she winked her dexter eyelid at susceptible O'Toole | C |
While she slyly winked the other at McSharry | D |
- | |
So they drank her health in bumpers till the rising of the moon | G |
And she had them both in bondage so completely | D |
That each time they talked of going she said quot Must you go so soon quot | F |
And they couldn't go she smiled at them so sweetly | D |
Dan O'Toole grew sentimental and McSharry played the fool | C |
Though they each had sworn an oath they'd never marry | D |
Yet the self same dart from Cupid's bow that vanquished Dan O'Toole | C |
Had gone through the heart of honest Con McSharry | D |
- | |
Then McSharry thought if Dandy Dan got drunk and went to bed | F |
He McSharry could indulge his little folly | D |
And Dan thought if McSharry once in drunken sleep lay spread | F |
He could have a little flirt with pretty Polly | D |
So they kept the bottle going till they both were pretty full | H |
And yet each rival seemed inclined to tarry | D |
The precise amount of pain killer it took to fill O'Toole | C |
Was required to close the optics of McSharry | D |
- | |
So the rivals lost their tempers and they called each other names | I |
And disturbed the Doolan children from their pillows | J |
And when Doolan came and told them that he wouldn't have such games | I |
They must go and fight it out beneath the willows | J |
So they went beneath the willows near a deep and shady pool | C |
With as much inside as each of them could carry | D |
And McSharry started thumping the proboscis of O'Toole | C |
And O'Toole retaliated on McSharry | D |
- | |
And they fought till they were winded and yet neither had the best | F |
Though from each of them the blood was freely flowing | B |
And they paused at last to breathe awhile and take a moment's rest | F |
But O'Toole's two eyes with rage were fairly glowing | B |
Then without a moment's warning he charged forward like a bull | H |
And before poor Con had time to run or parry | D |
With a terrible momentum the big head of Dan O'Toole | C |
Went bump into the stomach of McSharry | D |
- | |
And when the force of the concussion laid McSharry out quite still | K |
With his feet above his head among the bushes | L |
While O'Toole with the momentum cannoned madly down the hill | K |
And fell plump in the lagoon among the rushes | L |
Like a weedy river god he climbed the far side of the pool | C |
And he did not for one single moment tarry | D |
For the curse of Cain was in the brain of Dandy Dan O'Toole | C |
Who felt certain he had settled poor McSharry | D |
- | |
Now while Dan O'Toole was stealing through the still and silent night | F |
And his aching brain with pain killer was throbbing | B |
McSharry lay and listened till his heart stood still with fright | F |
And he eased his guilty soul with silent sobbing | B |
For he heard his boon companion falling headlong in the pool | C |
And he thought he was as dead as poor old Harry | D |
And McSharry mourned the drowning of poor Dandy Dan O'Toole | C |
While O'Toole was sadly weeping for McSharry | D |
- | |
And the valley of the Lachlan never more will know the men | M |
That were once so loving frolicsome and frisky | D |
For OToole cleared out to Queensland and was never seen again | M |
While McSharry started south and took to whisky | D |
And McSharry in his nightmare often sees that fatal pool | C |
And the pricks of guilty conscience tries to parry | D |
While away among the back blocks wanders Dandy Dan O'Toole | C |
Always flying from the ghost of Con McSharry | D |
Thomas E. Spencer
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