• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

The Institute of Australian Culture

Heritage, history, and heroes; literature, legends, and larrikins

  • Home
  • Articles
  • Biographies
  • Books
  • Ephemera
  • Poetry & songs
    • Recommended poetry
    • Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
    • Poetry and songs, 1901-1954
    • Rock music and pop music [videos]
    • Early music [videos]
  • Slang
  • Timeline
    • Timeline of Australian history and culture
    • Calendar of Australian history and culture
    • Significant events and commemorative dates
  • Topics

One Cruel Word [poem by Menie Parkes]

12 January 2014 · Leave a Comment

[Editor: This poem by Menie Parkes was published in Poems (1867).]

One Cruel Word.

As long as existence lasts,
As long as a life-breath’s stirred,
His soul the bitterness tastes
Of that one — that cruel word!

It was uttered by one he loved,
In words of mocking pride,
And in soft and silvery tones
The laughing sentence died.

It was fifty years ago,
And he was young and strong,
When she he worshipped well
Did to his soul this wrong.

There were fifty years gone by,
And she — the loved and lost! —
Lies where other idols lie;
And he life’s waste has crossed.

They were fifty foolish years! —
How swiftly they have flown! —
Yet still that simple word
Can make the old heart groan.

There was much that he might have done,
But ever, as he tried,
There floated up with a ban
Those words of girlish pride.

There was much that he might have been —
His was no mind to stoop! —
But ever there came between
That sign for his will to droop.

More than fifty foolish years,
Seventy years and five,
And the old man lies on a bed of death,
Only his heart alive.

He looks on a wasted life,
On wasted wealth and brain,
But the old man shakes his head —
“I should use them so again.”

The old man mutters and moans
Thro’ the last breath, faintly stirred,
Broken and hindered by groans
Bearing that cruel word.

The old man raises his eyes,
No whisper of prayer is heard;
They listen for “Saviour” and “Heaven” —
They hear but that cruel word!



Source:
Menie Parkes, Poems, F. Cunninghame, Sydney, [1867], pages 5-6

Editor’s notes:
ban = a curse, an imprecation, a malediction

Filed Under: poetry Tagged With: Menie Parkes (1839-1915) (author), poem, Poems (Menie Parkes 1867), SourceSLV, year1867

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Australian flag, Kangaroo, Wattle, 100hThe Institute of Australian Culture
Heritage, history, and heroes. Literature, legends, and larrikins. Stories, songs, and sages.

Search this site

Featured books

The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses, by Banjo Paterson A Book for Kids, by C. J. Dennis  The Bulletin Reciter: A Collection of Verses for Recitation from The Bulletin The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, by C. J. Dennis The Complete Inner History of the Kelly Gang and Their Pursuers, by J. J. Kenneally The Foundations of Culture in Australia, by P. R. Stephensen The Australian Crisis, by C. H. Kirmess Such Is Life, by Joseph Furphy
More books (full text)

Featured lists

Timeline of Australian history and culture
A list of significant Australiana
Significant events and commemorative dates
Australian slang
Books (full text)
Australian literature
Rock music and pop music (videos)
Folk music and bush music (videos)
Early music (videos)
Recommended poetry
Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
Poetry and songs, 1901-1954
Australian explorers
Topics
Links

Featured posts

Advance Australia Fair: How the song became the Australian national anthem
Brian Cadd [music videos and biography]
Ned Kelly: Australian bushranger
Under the Southern Cross I Stand [the Australian cricket team’s victory song]

Some Australian authors

E. J. Brady
John Le Gay Brereton
C. J. Dennis
Mary Hannay Foott
Joseph Furphy
Mary Gilmore
Charles Harpur
Grant Hervey
Lucy Everett Homfray
Rex Ingamells
Henry Kendall
“Kookaburra”
Henry Lawson
Jack Moses
“Dryblower” Murphy
John Shaw Neilson
John O’Brien (Patrick Joseph Hartigan)
“Banjo” Paterson
Marie E. J. Pitt
A. G. Stephens
P. R. Stephensen
Agnes L. Storrie (Agnes L. Kettlewell)

Recent Posts

  • To Australia [poem by Ruby Jean Stephenson, 18 November 1943]
  • [General news items] [4 April 1912]
  • [Australia has had more than its share of shipping disasters of late] [4 April 1912]
  • [Probably Professor Marshall Hall was right] [4 April 1912]
  • Gold-seekers of the Fifties [1 July 1899]

Top Posts & Pages

  • The Man from Snowy River [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • Australian slang
  • The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • The Aboriginal Mother [poem by Eliza Hamilton Dunlop, 13 December 1838]
  • Taking His Chance [poem by Henry Lawson]

Archives

Categories

Posts of note

The Bastard from the Bush [poem, circa 1900]
A Book for Kids [by C. J. Dennis, 1921]
Click Go the Shears [traditional Australian song, 1890s]
Core of My Heart [“My Country”, poem by Dorothea Mackellar, 24 October 1908]
Freedom on the Wallaby [poem by Henry Lawson, 16 May 1891]
The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]
Nationality [poem by Mary Gilmore, 12 May 1942]
The Newcastle song [music video, sung by Bob Hudson]
No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest [poem by Mary Gilmore, 29 June 1940]
Our pipes [short story by Henry Lawson]
Rommel’s comments on Australian soldiers [1941-1942]
Shooting the moon [short story by Henry Lawson]

Recent Comments

  • IAC on How M’Ginnis Went Missing [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • Stephen on How M’Ginnis Went Missing [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • IAC on The late Louisa Lawson [by George Black, 2 October 1920]
  • Percy Delouche on Freedom on the Wallaby [poem by Henry Lawson, 16 May 1891]
  • Phil on The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]

For Australia

Copyright © 2023 · Log in