Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE RED CREEK CONSULTATION, by GEORGE ESSEX EVANS


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE RED CREEK CONSULTATION, by                    
First Line: Red creek rush was not a duffer
Last Line: After all!
Subject(s): Crime & Criminals; Deception; Desire


RED Creek Rush was not a duffer—
Far from that.
E'en the most benighted buffer
Struck it fat.
For the wash with gold was teeming,
And the strings of men came streaming
Till some hundred tents were gleaming
On the Flat.

To this bright and happy valley
Came one day,
G. Theophilus O'Malley,
In a dray,
With his wall-eyed mare Susannah
And his lovely sister Hannah
Smiling in a witching manner
Like a fay.

The astonishment was utter
Of the Boys!
When they saw her garments flutter,
O the noise!
You may judge of the elation,
The excitement, the sensation
Which O'Malley's fair relation
Caused the Boys!

And she was a perfect stunner,
Tall and fair;
Every digger longed to "run her
On the square".
For her cheeks were like a posy
And her lovely little nosey
With a tiny tilt uprosee
In the air.

And her lips were rather redder
Than a rose,
And her eyes were rather blacker
Than two sloes,
And the worn and weary digger,
Getting very tired of nigger,
Praised the outlines of her figure
And her pose.

Now this beauty, love-compelling,
Innocent,
Shared her brother's humble dwelling,
Just a tent,
Where, as soon as toil was over,
With desire to be in clover,
Came the steps of every rover
Love-intent.

There the crazy concertina
Of Jim Bound
Squealed like any sick hyena,
Till the sound
Of the whining of a fiddle
With a rupture in its middle
(Joy and pride of Tommy Biddle)
Would be drowned.

And outside sat every digger,
Rank on rank;
They admired dear Hannah's figure
As they drank,
And they sang of love and glory
But restrained the language gory
Of the picturesque Gulf story,
Blanky-Blank.

O, she set the Red Creek Gully
In a blaze.
She refused the Red Creek Gully
In five days.
Sundays Red Creek wished to lend her
Forty horses and attend her
Clad in all the lurid splendour
It could raise.

Till it happened to this valley
Of delight
That Miss Hannah B. O'Malley
Was a blight.
There was bickering and biting,
There was jealousy and slighting,
There was drunkenness and fighting
Every night.

Then Miss Hannah sent a letter
To the mash
That she loved none less or better—
Not a dash!
"Consultation" might be wicked,
But for fun you couldn't lick it:
She would be the winning ticket,
With the cash.

And all Red Creek passed a motion
On the spot,
To accept her clever notion
Like a shot.
"Just three hundred," said Bill Grady,
"At a fiver!" put in Brady,
"And the man who draws the lady
Takes the lot."

Empty grog-case—did she mind it
In the tent?
No. Miss Hannah sat behind it,
Innocent.
And the boys they looked quite wily
As they planked the dust down slyly,
And Miss Hannah blushed so shyly
As they went.

O, the camp was sweet as honey
On the game!
Here was something for your money!
Here was fame!
O the wages and the jawing
On the day before the drawing!
And the iciest hearts were thawing
At her flame!

When the morning sun was gleaming
Bright and fair,
To the tent the camp came beaming,
Free from care;
But Miss Hannah and O'Malley,
And the gold-dust and the tally,
And the best nags of the Valley
Were not there!

Take a lesson from the story
Of the fall
Of Red Creek in the glory
Of her thrall.
They who never could resist her—
They who hadn't even kissed her
Found she wasn't Malley's sister
After all!





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net