• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

The Institute of Australian Culture

Heritage, history, and heroes; literature, legends, and larrikins

  • Home
  • Articles
  • Biographies
  • Books
  • Ephemera
  • Poetry & songs
    • Recommended poetry
    • Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
    • Poetry and songs, 1901-1954
    • Rock music and pop music [videos]
    • Early music [videos]
  • Slang
  • Timeline
    • Timeline of Australian history and culture
    • Calendar of Australian history and culture
    • Significant events and commemorative dates
  • Topics

Sinking [poem by Bendee]

22 September 2012 · Leave a Comment

[Editor: This poem by Bendee was published in The Bulletin Reciter, 1901.]

Sinking.

I had often faced a seeming
Certain death without a shiver,
And I boasted of my valour
In the pride that courts a fall —
Boasted vainly, little dreaming
That the Death-fear soon should quiver
Thro’ each nerve, and stamp the pallor
Of a quaking heart o’er all. . .

Lightning flashing, thunder growling,
Queensland rain in torrents pouring.
As the midnight shift makes ready
For the eight hours’ work below ;
Fierce wind, thro’ the whim-drum howling,
Shrieks thro’ poppet-heads, and roaring
’Cross the shaft’s mouth, drowns my “Steady!
Right, old man ; now let her go !”

Standing upright in the bucket,
Legs astride its mounted handle, —
With my right hand tightly gripping
The old rope Jack feared to trust
With our joint weight, — by bad luck it
Chanced a drip put out my candle.
And past slimy slabs I ’m slipping
Down in darkness and disgust.

Full three hundred feet beneath me,
Like a star, I catch the glimmer
Of Jack’s light, and hear him singing ;
But the powder-clouds that hang
In the shaft, and now enwreath me,
Make the distant light seem dimmer —
When my bucket, in its swinging,
Strikes a slab-ledge with a bang !

And the rope between my fingers
Turns from taut to slack instanter,
And I know my weight is resting
On a quarter inch of pine ;
And each second that it lingers.
With the whim-horse at a canter.
Brings a coil of slack, suggesting
That it ’s time to free the chine.

“Steady ! Heave up ! Ho ! on top, there !”
But my voice is lost in thunder,
And the slack comes coiling round me,
Reaching knee, and thigh, and hip :
And I curse, and scream out “Stop, there !
Heave-up ! Jack, lad, stand from under !”
For the stranded coils surround me
And I feel the bucket slip.

As the end draws near and nearer
All my bones seem turned to marrow,
And with fear and rage I ’m choking ;
For the drop means death, I know.
But one piercing shriek of terror,
Shooting upwards like an arrow,
Finds the braceman calmly smoking ;
And he drawls, “What ’s wrong below ?”

“HEAVE-UP ! May ten thousand cancers
Rot your leprous ears for ever !”
And my brain is fairly boiling,
For I hear the splinter crack.
“Lower ? Right you are !” he answers,
And I rave as one in fever
As the slack comes coiling, coiling
Round my armpits — tons of slack !

As the bucket disengages,
Head and hands alike are busy ;
Still I shriek a malediction
As I gasp, and drop through space !
And the seconds seem as ages
In that downward rush and dizzy.
And I feel the fiery friction
Of the air against my face.

Then a sudden jerk that almost
Tears each arm from out its socket,
(But not death itself could sunder
Such a death-grip) brings relief.
Now ’t is Jack must fear the fall most,
For I hear the unhooked bucket
Crashing down below like thunder,
While I ’m trussed up like a sheaf.

Yes, the sturdy hempen strands that
Stood the fearful strain so stoutly
Still encircle me and save me.
After God, I thank the slack ;
And no doubt He understands that
I would thank Him more devoutly
For the lease of life He gave me,
If He ’d steered the cask off Jack !

Bendee.



Source:
A.G. Stephens (editor). The Bulletin Reciter: A Collection of Verses for Recitation from “The Bulletin” [1880-1901], The Bulletin Newspaper Company, Sydney, 1902 [first published 1901], pages 31-34

Filed Under: poetry Tagged With: Bendee (dates?) (author), poem, SourceArchiveOrg, The Bulletin Reciter (1901), year1901

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Australian flag, Kangaroo, Wattle, 100hThe Institute of Australian Culture
Heritage, history, and heroes. Literature, legends, and larrikins. Stories, songs, and sages.

Search this site

Featured books

The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses, by Banjo Paterson A Book for Kids, by C. J. Dennis  The Bulletin Reciter: A Collection of Verses for Recitation from The Bulletin The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, by C. J. Dennis The Complete Inner History of the Kelly Gang and Their Pursuers, by J. J. Kenneally The Foundations of Culture in Australia, by P. R. Stephensen The Australian Crisis, by C. H. Kirmess Such Is Life, by Joseph Furphy
More books (full text)

Featured lists

Timeline of Australian history and culture
A list of significant Australiana
Significant events and commemorative dates
Australian slang
Books (full text)
Australian literature
Rock music and pop music (videos)
Folk music and bush music (videos)
Early music (videos)
Recommended poetry
Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
Poetry and songs, 1901-1954
Australian explorers
Topics
Links

Featured posts

Advance Australia Fair: How the song became the Australian national anthem
Brian Cadd [music videos and biography]
Ned Kelly: Australian bushranger
Under the Southern Cross I Stand [the Australian cricket team’s victory song]

Some Australian authors

E. J. Brady
John Le Gay Brereton
C. J. Dennis
Mary Hannay Foott
Joseph Furphy
Mary Gilmore
Charles Harpur
Grant Hervey
Lucy Everett Homfray
Rex Ingamells
Henry Kendall
“Kookaburra”
Henry Lawson
Jack Moses
“Dryblower” Murphy
John Shaw Neilson
John O’Brien (Patrick Joseph Hartigan)
“Banjo” Paterson
Marie E. J. Pitt
A. G. Stephens
P. R. Stephensen
Agnes L. Storrie (Agnes L. Kettlewell)

Recent Posts

  • A billabong: Goulbourn River [postcard, 27 November 1907]
  • Dear Mac [postcard, early 20th Century]
  • The New to the Old [poem by Randolph Bedford, 3 January 1896]
  • New Year greetings [postcard, early 20th Century]
  • New Year greetings [postcard, early 20th Century]

Top Posts & Pages

  • The Man from Snowy River [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • Australian slang
  • The Bastard from the Bush [poem, circa 1900]
  • The Bard and the Lizard [poem by John Shaw Neilson]
  • The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]

Archives

Categories

Posts of note

The Bastard from the Bush [poem, circa 1900]
A Book for Kids [by C. J. Dennis, 1921]
Click Go the Shears [traditional Australian song, 1890s]
Core of My Heart [“My Country”, poem by Dorothea Mackellar, 24 October 1908]
Freedom on the Wallaby [poem by Henry Lawson, 16 May 1891]
The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]
Nationality [poem by Mary Gilmore, 12 May 1942]
The Newcastle song [music video, sung by Bob Hudson]
No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest [poem by Mary Gilmore, 29 June 1940]
Our pipes [short story by Henry Lawson]
Rommel’s comments on Australian soldiers [1941-1942]
Shooting the moon [short story by Henry Lawson]

Recent Comments

  • Annie Crestani on Under the Southern Cross I Stand [the Australian cricket team’s victory song]
  • Peter Pearsall on The Clarence [poem by Jack Moses]
  • Trevor Hurst on Timeline of Australian history and culture
  • Ju on Under the Southern Cross I Stand [the Australian cricket team’s victory song]
  • David Carroll on Queensland [poem by Philip Durham Lorimer]

For Australia

Copyright © 2023 · Log in