[Editor: This poem, by Barcroft Boake, was published in “The Red Page” section of The Bulletin (Sydney, NSW), 16 January 1897. The poem, as originally published, was untitled; the title given here is that used in the second edition of Where the Dead Men Lie and Other Poems (1913).]
A Bushman’s Love
(A Fragment)
Of all the bush poets now writing, Ogilvie in style and capacity approaches nearest to the lamented Boake. (Boake’s collected work, with a memoir by A. G. Stephens, is shortly to be published by Angus and Robertson and by permission of The Bulletin for the benefit of his family.) The author of the thrilling “Store Cattle from Nelanjie,” and other fine Bulletin verse, is a pleasant-faced young Scotchman midway in his twenties, who has almost acquired the air of a bushman born. He does not brood quite so much as Boake did, and touches hardly such deep springs of feeling; but he has all Boake’s rhyming faculty and quick-pulsed sympathy. Boake, indeed, used often to weave his lines much in the manner with which a Quarterly Reviewer upbraided Keats, letting the thought follow the rhyme instead of leading it. So, for example, in these hitherto unprinted lines — which have, alas! a note of the personal and prophetic in them — addressed to one who lightly said that “bushmen cannot love.”
You say we bushmen cannot love:
Our lives are too prosaic; hence
We lose or lack that finer sense
That raises some few men above
Their fellows, setting them apart
As vessels of a finer make,
The acme of the potter’s art,
Are placed apart upon the shelf:
So he is more than common delf,
And, more than brute in human guise,
Who, seeking, finds his nobler self
Twin-mirrored in a woman’s eyes.Yet these things bring their penalty:
For oft the merest touch will break
These vessels of a finer make;
And throats attuned to noblest key
A draught of air will set awry,
And stifle in an ulcerous sore
The voice that floated to the sky,
And silence it for evermore.You say we bushmen cannot love —
That, like our foe, the fire-fiend,
We blaze, until a river-bend —
Nay, less, a pebble-graven groove
Where waters thread — doth bid us stay:
Our passions for a month, a week
Flare out and then they die away —
For separation, like the creek
That stays the bush fire, bars the way.You say we bushmen cannot love:
Well, have it so! but this I swear —
That she possessed a power to move
The dullest boor to do or dare.
But I, as being somewhat shy,
Became the target for her wit …
How oft in wantonness she’d pit
The blazing lances of her eye
And keener rapier of her tongue,
That carelessly made lightning play,
Until to action I was stung,
And, like a dumb beast, stood at bay …
Poor Boake! shy, sensitive, a dreamer to whom Rogers’ fine saying of Byron applies truly and wholly—
… his heart, methinks,
Was generous, noble — noble in its scorn
Of all things low or little — nothing there
Sordid or servile —
the sweet influences of sex swayed him strongly — his heart leapt, as all bushmen’s hearts, to the rustle of a petticoat. And then … to end so — a suicide at 25. But, unless it be suicide at 24, what better ending is left for the baffled idealist?
Source:
The Bulletin (Sydney, NSW), 16 January 1897, p. [ii; The Red Page], columns 2-3
This poem was also published in:
Barcroft Boake, Where the Dead Men Lie and Other Poems (2nd edition), London (England): Angus & Robertson, 1913, pp. 222-223 [entitled: “A Bushman’s Love (A Fragment)”; this poem was not included in the 1st edition]
Editor’s notes:
The lines quoted, regarding “Poor Boake”, were written by Samuel Rogers (1763-1855) about Lord Byron (1788-1824). The lines are an extract from “Bologna”, a section of the book-length poem “Italy” written by Rogers.
See Samuel Rogers, “Bologna”, in: Italy, a Poem, London: T. Cadell, 1830, pp. 97-101 [the relevant quote is on page 100]
acme = the highest point or peak; something considered to be the best, or at the highest peak of development
A. G. Stephens = Alfred George Stephens (1865-1933), an Australian editor, publisher, author, literary critic, and poet; he was born in Toowoomba (Queensland) in 1865, and died in Darlinghurst (New South Wales) in 1933
See: “A. G. Stephens”, The Institute of Australian Culture
Byron = George Gordon Byron (1788-1824), known as Lord Byron (he was the 6th Baron Byron), English poet
See: 1) “Lord Byron: British poet”, Encyclopaedia Britannica
2) “Lord Byron”, Wikipedia
delf = a ditch, mine, pit, quarry, or a hole or structure dug into the earth; (in the context of heraldry) an emblem or icon which represents a square sod of earth or turf (often being simply represented by a square shape, sometimes topped with a representation of grass); an alternative spelling of “delft”, a type of Dutch earthenware which has an opaque white glaze with a (usually blue) decoration, or pottery of a similar style
doth = (archaic) does
Keats = John Keats (1795-1821), an English poet; he was born in Moorgate (London, England) in 1795, and died in Rome (Papal States; now part of Italy) in 1821
See: “John Keats”, Wikipedia
nay = an archaic form of “no”; however, it is still sometimes used regarding voting (e.g. to vote yea or nay), in formal circumstances, in some dialects (e.g. in the north of England), and as a substitute for “no” when some emphasis is desired
oft = (archaic) often
Ogilvie = William Henry Ogilvie (1869-1963), known as Will; a poet and journalist; he was born in Holefield (near Kelso, Roxburghshire, Scotland) in 1869, came to Australia in 1889, returned to Scotland in 1901, and died in Ashkirk (Selkirk, Scotland) in 1963
See: 1) Clement Semmler, “William Henry (Will) Ogilvie (1869–1963)”, Australian Dictionary of Biography
2) “William Henry Ogilvie”, Wikipedia
Quarterly Reviewer = someone who works for or writes for the Quarterly Review (London, England), a periodical which was published from 1809 to 1967
See: “Quarterly Review”, Wikipedia
Rogers = Samuel Rogers (1763-1855), an English poet
See: “Samuel Rogers”, Wikipedia
sex = (archaic) the female sex, the human female gender, womankind, women
See: 1) “sex (n.)”, Australian Dictionary of Biography
2) “sex”, Wiktionary [see noun definition 5]
upbraid = to criticize severely, to find fault with; to severely blame, condemn, censure, rebuke, reproach, scold, tell off
upbraided = (past tense of “upbraid”) criticized severely; severely blamed, censured, condemned, rebuked, reproached, scolded, told off
[Editor: Changed “and permission of” to “and by permission of”.]
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