• 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 and booklets
  • Ephemera
  • Poetry and songs
  • Slang
  • Timeline
  • Topics
    • Anzac Day
    • Australia Day
    • Australian Aborigines
    • Australianism
    • Australian literature
    • The Eureka Rebellion
    • Explorers
    • Significant events and commemorative dates

Skeeta [poem by Barcroft Boake]

22 September 2012 · Leave a Comment

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

Skeeta.

her of his shame).
But never, though long time she waited, did her faith in the faithless grow weak ;
And each time the outer door grated, an eager flush sprang to her cheek:

’T was n’t him, and it died with a flicker; and then what I ’d long dreaded came :
I was serving two drovers with liquor when one of them mentioned his name.
“Oh, yes!” said the other one, winking, “on the Paroo I saw him ; he ’d been
In Eulo a fortnight then, drinking, and driving about with ‘The Queen,’
While the bullocks were going to glory, and his billet was not worth a damn !”
I told him to cut short the story, as I pulled-to the door with a slam.
Too late! for the words were loud-spoken, and Skeeta was out in the hall :
Then I knew that a girl’s heart was broken, as I heard a low cry and a fall.

And then carne a day when the doctor went home, for the truth was avowed ;
And I knew that my hands, which had rocked her in childhood, would fashion her shroud :
I knew we should tenderly carry and lay her where many more lie —
Ah, why will the girls love and marry, when men are not worthy? — ah, why?
She lay there a-dying, our Skeeta : not e’en did she stir at my kiss :
In the next world, perchance, we may greet her; but never, ah, never in this !

Like the last breath of air in a gully, that sighs as the sun slowly dips.
To the knell of a heart beating dully her soul struggled out on her lips ;
But she lifted great eyelids and pallid, while once more beneath them there glowed
The fire of old Love, as she rallied at sound of hoofs out on the road.
They rang sharp and clear on the metal : they ceased at the gate in the lane :
A pause ! and we heard the beats settle in long, swinging cadence again.
With a rattle, a rush, and a clatter, the rider came down by the store,
And neared us ; but what did it matter? he never pulled rein at the door ;
But over the brow of the hill he sped on with a low, muffled roll —
’T was only young Smith on his filly : he passed — and so too did her soul.

Weeks after, I went down one morning to trim the white rose that had grown
And clasped, with its tender adorning, the plain little cross of white stone.
In the lane dusty drovers were wheeling dull cattle, with turbulent sound ;
But I paused as I saw a man kneeling, with his forehead pressed low on the mound.

Already he ’d heard me approaching ; and slowly I saw him up-rise
And move away, sullenly slouching his cabbage-tree over his eyes.
I never said anything to him as he mounted his horse at the gate :
He didn’t know me; but I knew him — the husband who came back, too late !

Barcroft Boake.



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 170-176

Filed Under: poetry Tagged With: Barcroft Boake (author) (1866-1892), 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, 100hThe Institute of Australian Culture
Heritage, history, and heroes. Literature, legends, and larrikins. Stories, songs, and sages.

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

  • Sergeants’ Mess [postcard, 22 December 1914]
  • An Australian soldier [First World War postcard, 28 February 1918]
  • Two soldiers (one Australian, one British) [First World War postcard]
  • Two Australian soldiers, including a corporal [First World War postcard]
  • Two Australian soldiers [First World War postcard]

Top Posts & Pages

  • Surely God was a Lover [poem by John Shaw Neilson]
  • Australian slang
  • Freedom on the Wallaby [poem by Henry Lawson, 16 May 1891]
  • The drover’s wife [by Henry Lawson]
  • The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]

Categories

Archives

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]

Search this site



For Australia


Copyright © 2022 · Log in