• 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

The Currency Lass [poem by Roderic Quinn]

22 September 2012 · Leave a Comment

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

The Currency Lass.

They marshalled her lovers four and four,
A drum at their head, in the days of old :
O, none could have guessed their hearts were sore ;
They marched with such gayness in scarlet and gold.

They came to the dance place on the hill
Where Death was the piper (he pipes full well !) ;
They grounded their arms and stood stock-still ;
And just why he sorrowed no one would tell.

O, some had been wed in distant lands,
And sweethearts had others — but let that pass ;
She held them at ease in snow-white hands,
For Queen over all was the Currency Lass.

They ushered her forth in all her charms —
Her eyes were alight and as gold her hair ;
She looked on the men and oped her arms —
What wonder if then they had wished them there ?

She hearkened the Preacher, thin and pale ;
His voice was as frost, yet his words were wise ;
But sin on the soul is like wrought mail,
And only a scorn of him fired her eyes.

“O, sorrow and pray ! the hour draws nigh.
The Lord in His justice shall question thee !”
The Preacher made prayer ’twixt sob and sigh.
And down dropped his soul on bended knee.

“He fashioned thee fair” — a sideways look—
“Red lipped and right royal to look upon,
A joy of the Earth” — his thin hands shook,
And passionate lights in his deep eyes shone.

In scarlet and gold her lovers stood,
A host under famine with heads out-thrust
Keen-flamed in the sun ran reddest blood
And lips that were thirsty grew dry as dust.

They loved her for years — their tangled souls
Like silvery fish in her beauty-mesh
All breathless reposed . . . A dull drum rolls,
And Death is at hand for the Flower of Flesh.

She lifted her head for one love-word
(Afar was a clamour of new-come ships),
Her hair in a cloud the low wind stirred,
And silent they marvelled at her red lips.

“A lover was I from youth,” she said ;
“And Love is my lord till I fill the grave” —
Then coyly she drooped her gold-haired head —
“Now, last of my lovers, a kiss I crave !”

The Preacher was whirled in Passion’s rout,
And dark was the stain on his soul’s white snow
Her lips were as life — his soul leapt out,
And sure there was laughter in Hell below !

“A singer was I these years,” she said,
“And so I must sing till my soul doth pass.”
Then forth from her sin-sweet lips there sped
The long-dead song of the Currency Lass.

The hands of the spoiler touch her throat ;
The noon grows near and the last sands run :
(Still over the scene her wild words float)
The noose is ready, the song is done.

“A dancer was I from birth,” she said ;
“A baby, I danced on my mother’s knee ;
Now whistle a jig, with swaying head,
And lovers of mine, I will dance for ye !”

Stood each with a droop, a cheated man,
While Sorrow went weaving an ice-cold spell . . .
Good-bye to the world ! The dance began
With Death for the piper — he piped full well !

Roderic Quinn.



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 176-179

Filed Under: poetry Tagged With: poem, Roderic Quinn, 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

  • EC83 A loving greeting [postcard, 15 April 1913]
  • Market St., Sydney [postcard, 3 April 1913]
  • Kangaroo and Map stamps
  • A billabong: Goulbourn River [postcard, 27 November 1907]
  • Dear Mac [postcard, early 20th Century]

Top Posts & Pages

  • Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
  • Rommel’s comments on Australian soldiers [1941-1942]
  • The Man from Snowy River [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • Australian slang
  • The Bard and the Lizard [poem by John Shaw Neilson]

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

  • rob buntine on No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest [poem by Mary Gilmore, 29 June 1940]
  • Carol on Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
  • 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

For Australia

Copyright © 2023 · Log in