• 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

The Captive [poem by Rex Ingamells]

2 July 2013 · Leave a Comment

[Editor: This poem by Rex Ingamells was published in Gumtops (1935).]

The Captive

See the lion, see the tawny king,
Stretched on grey cement,
With unregarding, dreamy eyes,
Calm and innocent.

See those limbs, so lax and statuesque;
See that quiet head;
And view again those idle eyes,
Whence all fire has fled.

Blind he seems; yet . . . . far away is he,
Where his fathers dwelt;
The scorching sun of Africa
Beats upon the veldt.

Noontide hush . . . . rough stony ground . . . . mirage . . . .
A cub, he dozes there:
And nothing moves but brilliant flies
On the hazy air.

Brother cubs bask soundless by his hide,
Mother, sisters, too;
While father, higher on a rock,
Keeps the world in view.

Sudden wrenchings break his double dream;
Images are rife:
For father thunderously roars,
Mother leaps to life.

Up they scramble, every cub, to know
What this ire portends:
Loud noises wreak their parents’ deaths . . . .
Now all dreaming ends.

See the lion, see the tawny king;
Fire is in his eye;
He stands in savage fury, head
Lifted to the sky.

See those limbs, those quivering thews of strength;
Shackled is their power;
And shackled is his mighty heart.
Now no ibex cower.

Ominous and maddened is his roar.
When the veldt-lands hear
That sound, a million screeching birds
Flock the sky in fear.

Timid creatures of the rocks and bush
Scatter in dismay,
When the tawny lion comes
On his royal way.

Vainly has he roared; he glowers now,
Stalks in discontent,
And, tiring through sheer boredom, drops
On the dull cement.

See those limbs, so lax and statuesque;
See that quiet head;
And view again those idle eyes,
Whence all fire has fled.

Blind he seems; yet . . . . far away is he,
Where his fathers dwelt;
The midnight stars of Africa
Wink above the veldt.

Brushing dews, he hunts with lion stealth
On a sleeping plain;
And shrubs and spear-grass, sharp with dew,
Strip his tawny mane.

Let him range the veldt-land, let him roam
Where the glow-fires gleam.
Exiled and miserable here,
Rob him not of dream.

Blind he seems; yet . . . . far away is he,
To his dream-life called:
The evening sky of Africa
Is rose-rayed emerald.

Lights are changing . . . . dusk is hastening through . . . .
He is dream-enthralled:
The paling sky of Africa
Is star-flicked emerald.



Source:
Rex Ingamells. Gumtops, F. W. Preece & Sons, Adelaide, 1935, pages 44-47

Editor’s notes:
ibex = wild goats (of the genus Capra) which have long upwardly-curving horns

thews = muscles or sinews; physical strength or vitality

Filed Under: poetry Tagged With: Gumtops (Rex Ingamells 1935), poem, Rex Ingamells (author) (1913-1955), year1935

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

  • A rod in pickle [political cartoon regarding Henry Parkes, 12 May 1877]
  • “Devil’s luck” [short story, 20 December 1901]
  • 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]

Top Posts & Pages

  • Surely God was a Lover [poem by John Shaw Neilson]
  • Freedom on the Wallaby [poem by Henry Lawson, 16 May 1891]
  • Timeline of Australian history and culture
  • Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
  • 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