[Editor: This poem by E. J. Brady was published in Bells and Hobbles (1911).]
Settlers on the Rise.
The monarch hills above it
Are crowned by sombre trees,
That billow to the skyline
Like dark, Titanic seas.
At eventime, the shadow
Of one great giant lies
Across a pleasant homestead
That stands upon the rise.
Here came — to wage with Nature,
The old uncertain strife —
A stalwart, young selector
And his new-wedded wife.
That low-roofed, three-roomed shanty
Of slabs and bark and scrim,
Long years ago, she whispered,
A palace was — with him.
Five miles from any neighbor,
Full forty from the town —
And so our lion-hearted
Bush exiles “settle down.”
With no applause to cheer them,
No banquets and no band,
Their days are yet heroic
With effort through the land.
They wear no tailored raiment,
These bush-folk hard and brown;
They know not city dainties,
Nor luxuries of town.
Hard beef and heavy damper,
And suet-strengthened dough,
And “spuds” boiled in their jackets
Full well and oft they know.
Miladi’s sleeping soundly,
Milord in slumber lies,
When he and she are toiling
At sun-up on the rise.
Their acres, won in travail
For tilth, are trebly dear;
The laughter of their children
Is sweet and good to hear.
The palinged garden, bearing
Its kitchen growth in rows,
The earthen stoop, bark-shaded,
Whereon a creeper grows;
The dog-leg fences, marking
Each year, another field,
A hope of better seasons,
And still a greater yield —
The spring rains softly falling;
The stainless Southern skies,
Hold golden compensation
For dwellers on the rise.
Long years from now may find them
Still hoping, brave, and fond,
Still wooing fickle Fortune;
Still looking out — beyond.
Tall, stalwart sons beside them;
Strong daughters in their ’teens,
The simple household comforts
That come with ways and means.
* * * * *
No great, heroic ending,
No palace and no prize;
But rest and recollection
At sunset on the rise.
And courage on his face is,
And love is in her eyes —
Some city folks might envy
The dwellers on the rise.
Source:
E. J. Brady, Bells and Hobbles, Melbourne: George Robertson & Co., 1911, pp. 60-62
Editor’s notes:
eventime = (archaic) evening, evening time, (archaic) eventide
miladi = (vernacular) my lady
milord = (vernacular) my lord
selector = the purchaser of an area of land obtained by free-selection; land legislation in Australia in the1860s was passed by several colonies which enabled people to obtain land for farming, whereby they could nominate a limited area of land to rent or buy, being able to select land which had not yet been surveyed (hence the phrase “free selection before survey”) and even obtain land previously leased by squatters (although squatters were able to buy sections of their land, up to a designated limit; with many of them buying up further sections under the names of family members, friends, and employees)
shanty = a small roughly-built cabin or hut; may also refer to a pub, especially an unlicensed pub
spud = (slang) potato
stoop = a verandah; also, a small porch or a flight of steps situated at the front entrance of a building
travail = work, especially strenuous work or work involving painful effort
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