After the Hunt [poem by Henry Kendall]

[Editor: This poem by Henry Kendall was published in Leaves from Australian Forests (1869).]

After the Hunt.

Underneath the windy mountain walls
Forth we rode, an eager band,
By the surges, and the verges, and the gorges,
Till the night was on the land —
On the hazy, mazy land!
Far away the bounding prey
Leapt across the ruts and logs,
But we galloped, galloped, galloped on,
Till we heard the yapping of the dogs!
The yapping and the yelping of the dogs.

Oh! it was a madly merry day
We shall not so soon forget,
And the edges, and the ledges, and the ridges
Haunt us with their echoes yet —
Echoes, echoes, echoes yet!
While the moon is on the hill
Gleaming through the streaming fogs,
Don’t you gallop, gallop, gallop still?
Don’t you hear the yapping of the dogs —
The yapping and the yelping of the dogs?

Source:
Henry Kendall, Leaves from Australian Forests, Melbourne: George Robertson, 1869, page 160