The Murder-Night [poem by Hugh McCrae]

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

The Murder-Night.

The tree-frogs sing in the rain.
The stars are caught in the pines,
The wind has fled up the lane,
And a sick man’s window shines.

A loose horse neighs at the night,
A housed horse stamps in his stall ;
A swallow flutters with fright,
And dies at the top of the wall.

The paddocks are striped with flood,
And under the barn-door creeps
A silent gutter of blood
In queer little jerks and leaps.

And the nested rain-drops plash
And mix with the sinful stream
That writhes in the lightning flash,
Like a snake in a fearsome dream.

And up on the bald wet hill
A gibbering madman stands,
And sniffs his horrible fill
Of the rose in his shaking hands.

Hugh M’Crae.

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 231-232