COMING from the Arrow, I With my empty dray Met a nigger family Tramping on the way; The meanest, poorest wretches I had seen in W.A. He led them from the Ninety-Mile, That greasy, grey-haired black, His wire-like legs kept well ahead Along the ruddy track; The mother had a strip of bark Slung across her back. A swaggie would have failed to keep That skinny nigger's pace; The gin beneath her burden's weight Was limping in the race; Within its littered filth I saw A piccaninny's face. Trotted beside, another child, And mostly clothed in air, Who pointed to my water-bag— I gave what I could spare, And to the tailboard lifted her And bade her ride up there. She yabbered—but the mother seemed Half proud and half afraid, And kept close in beside the wheels And watched me and the maid; Till I gave her half a damper That a new-chum digger made. I tried to add a little To the little that I knew, "Gooyah, gooyah," meant the flies That round about her flew, And "Yindi"—well—the finest teeth That ever smiled on you! And then she started singing— But although attentively I tried to pick up any air Whatever air might be— 'Twas not what I had often heard At the corroboree. I nearly had it off by heart And thought what I should say When I should bring it back to Vic., This truly native lay— But in a flash I recognized— "Ta-ra-ra Boom-dee-ay!" | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DE PROFUNDIS by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING REPRESSION OF WAR EXPERIENCE by SIEGFRIED SASSOON THE DANUBE RIVER by C. HAMILTON AIDE SONNET: AT STRATFORD-UPON-AVON by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH |