[Editor: This poem by Barcroft Boake was published in Where the Dead Men Lie and Other Poems (1897).]
From the Far West
’Tis a song of the Never Never land —
Set to the tune of a scorching gale
On the sandhills red,
When the grasses dead
Loudly rustle, and bow the head
To the breath of its dusty hail:
Where the cattle trample a dusty pad
Across the never-ending plain,
And come and go
With muttering low
In the time when the rivers cease to flow,
And the Drought King holds his reign;
When the fiercest piker who ever turned
With lowered head in defiance proud,
Grown gaunt and weak,
Release doth seek
In vain from the depths of the slimy creek —
His sepulchre and his shroud;
His requiem sung by an insect host,
Born of the pestilential air,
That seethe and swarm
In hideous form
Where the stagnant waters lie thick and warm,
And Fever lurks in his lair:
Where a placid, thirst-provoking lake
Clear in the flashing sunlight lies —
But the stockman knows
No water flows
Where the shifting mirage comes and goes
Like a spectral paradise;
And, crouched in the saltbush’ sickly shade,
Murmurs to Heaven a piteous prayer:
‘O God! must I
Prepare to die?’
And, gazing up at the brazen sky,
Reads his death-warrant there.
Watching his slowly-ebbing breath;
Crows are flying,
Hoarsely crying
Burial service o’er the dying —
Foul harbingers of Death.
Full many a man has perished there,
Whose bones gleam white from the waste of sand —
Who left no name
On the scroll of Fame,
Yet died in his tracks, as well became
A son of that desert land.
Source:
Barcroft Boake, Where the Dead Men Lie and Other Poems, Sydney (NSW): Angus and Robertson, 1897, pp. 1-3
Also published in:
The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (Sydney, NSW), 14 February 1891, p. 357 [by B. H. B., from Wagga Wagga]
Truth (Sydney, NSW), 11 November 1900, p. 1
Truth (Sydney, NSW), 11 November 1900, p. 1 (Queensland edition)
Relevant notes from the “Notes to poems” section in this book:
1. FROM THE FAR WEST, p. 1. — Printed in The Sydney Mail, February 14, 1891. Signed ‘B. H. B., Wagga Wagga.’
Verse 1. ‘the Never Never land.’ Or, the Never Never country — a phrase used to denote the more or less desert interior of Australia. Date of first use and origin unknown; but was employed in Queensland about 1860. Somewhat fantastically suggested that it signified the sun-smitten land whither pioneers journeyed and never, never returned.
Verse 3. ‘piker.’ An old wild bullock or cow — so called from its ill-tempered habit of charging horsemen, as a piker? The lowered horns at the charge do suggest pike-heads.
Verse 6. ‘the saltbush’ sickly shade.’ Saltbush is the vernacular name of a salinous shrub of the order chenopodiaceae, which grows freely on the arid plains of central Australia, often where other vegetation is scarce or absent. There are many species, some of which are so eagerly eaten by sheep and cattle that they are fast disappearing. The plant’s average height is from four to twelve feet, and most species throw little or no shade. Boake probably refers to atriplex vesicaria or halimoides.
Editor’s notes:
doth = (archaic) does
harbinger = something that foreshadows a future event or something yet to come; omen; someone or something that announces, indicates, signals, or shows the approach of something (may also refer to: someone who is sent ahead to announce the coming of someone; a herald; someone who is sent ahead to arrange lodgings)
low = to moo (as in “the cows lowed in the field”, “the cattle were lowing”)
Never Never land = remote and isolated sparsely-inhabited desert country in Australia (also referred to as: the Never Never; the Never-Never)
o’er = (archaic) over (pronounced the same as “oar”, “or”, and “ore”)
piker = a wild bullock or cow (can also refer to: a lazy or useless person, a shirker)
requiem = a song, chant, dirge, piece of music, or musical service, especially of a mournful nature and slow, used for a funeral, memorial, or commemoration, for the repose (peaceful rest) of the souls of the dead (especially regarding Christian ceremonies for the dead); a lamentation for the dead; a requiem mass for the repose of the souls of the dead
sepulchre = a repository for the dead; a burial place, grave, crypt, or tomb; also a receptacle for sacred relics, especially those placed in an altar (also spelt: sepulcher)
shroud = a layer of material which covers, surrounds, or enwraps something; in the context of death, a burial shroud (a cloth or garment used for wrapping a corpse)
’tis = (archaic) a contraction of “it is”
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