• 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 Death of Ben Hall [poem by William Henry Ogilvie, 20 June 1928]

22 March 2014 · Leave a Comment

[Editor: A poem by William Henry Ogilvie. Published in the Narromine News and Trangie Advocate, 20 June 1928.]

The Death of Ben Hall.

(By Will. H. Ogilvie)

Ben Hall was out on the Lachlan side
With a thousand pounds on his head,
A score of troopers were scattered wide,
And a hundred more were ready to ride
Wherever a rumour led.

They had followed his track from the Weddin’ heights,
And north by the Weelong yards;
Through dazzling days and moonlit nights
They had sought him over their rifle sights,
With their hands on the trigger-guards.

The outlaw stole like a hunted fox,
Through the scrub and stunted heath
And peered like a hawk from his eyrie rocks
Through the waving boughs of the sapling box
On the troopers riding beneath.

His clothes were rent by the clutching thorn,
And his blistered feet were bare;
Ragged and torn, with his beard unshorn,
He hid in the woods like a beast forlorn,
With a padded path to his lair.

But every night when the white stars rose
He crossed by the Gunning Plain
To a stockman’s hut where the Gunning flows,
And struck on the door three swift light blows,
And a hand unhooked the chain.

And the outlaw followed the lone path back
With food for another day;
And the kindly darkness covered his track,
And the shadows swallowed him deep and black,
Where the starlight melted away.

But his friend had read of the Big Reward,
And his soul was stirred with greed,
He fastened his door and window-board,
He saddled his horse and crossed the ford,
And spurred to the town at speed.

You may ride at a man’s or a maid’s behest
When honour or true love call.
And steel your heart to the worst or best,
But the ride that is taken on a traitor’s quest,
Is the bitterest ride of all.

A hot wind blew from the Lachlan bank
And a curse on its shoulder came;
The pine trees frowned at him, rank on rank;
The sun on a gathering storm-cloud sank
And flushed his cheek with shame.

He reined at the Court, and the tale began
That the rifles alone should end;
Sergeant and trooper laid their plan
To draw the net on a hunted man
At the treacherous word of a friend.

False was the hand that raised the chain
And false was the whispered word:
“The troopers have turned to the south again,
You may dare to camp on the Gunning Plain,”
And the weary outlaw heard.

He walked from the hut but a quarter mile,
Where a clump of saplings stood,
In a sea of grass like a lonely isle;
And the moon came up in a little while
Like silver steeped in blood.

Ben Hall lay down on the dew-wet ground
By the side of his tiny fire;
And a night-breeze woke, and he heard no sound
As the troopers drew their cordon round —
And the traitor earned his hire.

And nothing they saw in the dim grey light,
But the little glow in the trees;
And they crouched in the tall cold grass all night,
Each one ready to shoot at sight,
With his rifle cocked on his knees.

When the shadows broke and the Dawn’s white sword
Swung over the mountain wall,
And a little wind blew over the ford
A Sergeant sprang to his feet and roared:
“In the name of the Queen, Ben Hall.”

Haggard, the outlaw leapt from his bed
With his lean arms held on high,
“Fire” and the word was scarcely said
When the mountains rang to a rain of lead
And the dawn went drifting by.

They kept their word and they paid his pay
Where a clean man’s hand would shrink;
And that was the traitor’s master-day,
As he stood by the bar on his homeward way,
And called on the crowd to drink.

He banned no creed and barred no class,
And he called to his friends by name
But the worst would shake his head and pass,
And none would drink from the blood-stained glass
And the goblet red with shame.

And I know when I hear the last grim call,
And my mortal hour is spent,
When the light is hid and the curtains fall
I would rather sleep with the dead Ben Hall
Than go where that traitor went.



Source:
Narromine News and Trangie Advocate (Narromine, NSW), 20 June 1928, p. 5

Also published in:
Smith’s Weekly, 27 September 1924
T. Inglis Moore (editor), From the Ballads to Brennan (series: Poetry in Australia, vol. 1), University of California Press, Berkeley, 1965, pages 131-134
Jamie Grant (editor), 100 Australian Poems You Need to Know, Hardie Grant Books, Prahran (Victoria), 2008, pages 77-79

Editor’s notes:
eyrie = (also spelt “aerie”) a high isolated place; the nest of an eagle, or other bird of prey, built up high in a tree or cliff

[Editor: Corrected “on Lachlan side” to “on the Lachlan side”*; lines 4 and 5 were moved to their correct place as lines 2 and 3* (see original placement below); “sstockman’s” to “stockman’s”; “tiny flare” to “tiny fire”* (*corrections made in line with other published versions, and confirmed with regard to the rhyme of the poem). The first stanza as published in the Narromine News and Trangie Advocate was:
Ben Hall was out on Lachlan side
And a hundred more were ready to ride
Wherever a rumour led,
With a thousand pounds on his head,
A score of troopers were scattered wide.]

Filed Under: poetry Tagged With: poem, SourceTrove, William Henry Ogilvie, year1928

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

  • [The new stamps] [re the new Tasmanian postage stamps, 2 January 1900]
  • The Leading Lady [poem by “Stargazer”, 31 January 1917]
  • The Naval Contingent: With the Australians in China [17 October 1900]
  • Australia Day [26 January 1953]
  • Australia Day [24 January 1953]

Top Posts & Pages

  • Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
  • Australian slang
  • The Man from Snowy River [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • The Bastard from the Bush [poem, circa 1900]
  • Rommel’s comments on Australian soldiers [1941-1942]

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