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

The Broken Heart’s Carouse [poem by Charles Harpur, 2 June 1835]

3 June 2012 · Leave a Comment

[Editor: A poem by Charles Harpur.]

The Broken Heart’s Carouse.

I.
Come Alan I will fill the bowl,
And thou shall sing that song of mine ;
Which dates the storm that wreck’d my soul,
And fits me for the fiery wine.
Yea, often may I lift it up —
Keen misery hath made me strong !
E’re I can lose in this deep cup,
The thought of her I loved so long.

II.
Drink Alan for I know full well,
Thy soul is blighted e’en like mine ;
And I’ve a tale, Heaven knows, to tell,
That might excuse excess in wine ;
But met we not, my friend, to quaff ?
Then let’s carouse both mad and strong ;
Yea let us teach our hearts to laugh,
At loss of things we loved so long.

III.
What tho’ that laugh be wild and forc’d ?
Such cheat doth flatter woe like ours,
And that of all who’ve found, at most
Life’s promises but fading flowers,
But strains heard in a wand’ring gale,
Whilst sky is fair and day is young ;
Then why, my friend our checks so pale.

IV.
Why Alan that desponding smile ?
The wounded eagle highest flies !
Look but upon the world’s deep guile,
And the spell that bound us to it — dies;
Yet when I think of times, when we
Were light of mood as bridal song ;
I weep to know that heart’s so free,
Were doom’d to broken be, ere long.

V.
Lift, lift again the potent bowl !
For like dense mists from ’rousing lake,
Dark dreams are steaming from my soul,
And gloomy thoughts begin to wake.
Go visions of a fleeted day,
Nor in my writhing memory throng ;
Since I’ve resolv’d to scoff away,
The thought of things I loved too long.

VI.
But you forget ! come strike the air,
Of that lone ode to an early grave ;
’Tis pleasing to my deep despair,
As the breeze to storm-begotten wave ;
And while it tells of a blighted soul,
That tried to smile upon its wrong,
I’ll madly pledge again the bowl,
To that false one I loved so long.

C. Harpur.



Source:
The Australian (Sydney, NSW), Tuesday 2 June 1835, page 4

Filed Under: poetry Tagged With: Charles Harpur (author) (1813-1868), poem, SourceTrove, year1835

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

  • Vale! Percy Mahoney [by H. A. Burton, 14 December 1950]
  • Early-day sportsman’s death [obituary of Percy Mahoney, 7 December 1950]
  • Visits to the IAC site from various countries
  • Poems by J. Shaw Neilson [book review, 22 December 1923]
  • “Australia in Palestine” [book review, 6 November 1919]

Top Posts & Pages

  • The Man from Snowy River [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • Clancy of The Overflow [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • Click Go the Shears [folk music, lyrics; traditional Australian song, 1890s]
  • The Bastard from the Bush [poem, circa 1900]

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]

Recent Comments

  • Rawlinson R on Rommel’s comments on Australian soldiers [1941-1942]
  • Mike Gregory on Australian slang
  • Peter Morgan on Rise of the wool industry: John Macarthur’s work for Australia [chapter 10 of “The story of Australia” by Martin Hambleton]
  • raymond on Ballad and Lyrical Poems [by John Shaw Neilson, 1923]
  • IAC on Ballad and Lyrical Poems [by John Shaw Neilson, 1923]

Search this site



For Australia


Copyright © 2022 · Log in