On the Boundary [poem by Barcroft Boake]

[Editor: This poem by Barcroft Boake was published in Where the Dead Men Lie and Other Poems (1897).]

On the Boundary

I love the ancient boundary-fence —
That mouldering chock-and-log:
When I go ride the boundary
I let the old horse jog,
And take his pleasure in and out
Where sandalwood grows dense,
And tender pines clasp hands across
The log that tops the fence.

’Tis pleasant on the boundary-fence
These sultry summer days;
A mile away, outside the scrub,
The plain is all ablaze.
The sheep are panting on the camps —
The heat is so intense;
But here the shade is cool and sweet
Along the boundary-fence.

I love to loaf along the fence:
So does my collie dog:
He often finds a spotted cat
Hid in a hollow log.
He’s very near as old as I
And ought to have more sense —
I’ve hammered him so many times
Along the boundary-fence.

My mother says that boundary-fence
Must surely be bewitched;
The old man says that through that fence
The neighbours are enriched;
It’s always down, and through the gaps
Our stock all get them hence —
It takes me half my time to watch
The doings of that fence.

But should you seek the reason
You won’t travel very far:
’Tis hid a mile away among
The murmuring belar:
The Jones’s block joins on to ours,
And so, in consequence,
It’s part of Polly’s work to ride
Their side the boundary-fence.

Source:
Barcroft Boake, Where the Dead Men Lie and Other Poems, Sydney (NSW): Angus and Robertson, 1897, pp. 93-94

Also published in:
The Bulletin (Sydney, NSW), 12 March 1892, p. 14, column 4 [by Barcroft H. Boake]
The Coolgardie Pioneer (Coolgardie, WA), 22 January 1898, p. 31
The Dawn (Sydney, NSW), 1 January 1903, p. 16
Clarence & Richmond Examiner (Grafton, NSW), 24 January 1903, p. 6

Relevant notes from the “Notes to poems” section in this book:
21. ON THE BOUNDARY, p. 93. — Printed in The Bulletin, March 12, 1892. Signed ‘Barcroft H. Boake.’

Verse 5. ‘The murmuring belar.’ The belar or bull-oak (casuarina glauca) is a ragged-looking tree, averaging 30 or 40 feet in height. Found all over eastern Australia. It resembles rather a pine than an oak, and the feathery foliage sways and murmurs as a pine’s. The Linnaean name is derived from the likeness of this foliage to the drooping plumes of a cassowary.

Editor’s notes:
belar = (also spelt “belah”) a casuarina tree (Casuarina glauca) native to the east coast of Australia, also known as a bull oak
See: 1) “New South Wales Plants and Grasses. No. 77. — Belar or Bull Oak. Casuarina Glauca, Sieb.”, The Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW), 26 July 1890, p. 23
2) “Casuarina glauca”, Florabank

block = a block of land

loaf = laze about, idle away time; lounge about; walk slowly in a relaxed and unhurried manner

old man = father, head of the household; husband, male boss, employer, governor; an elderly man

’tis = (archaic) a contraction of “it is”