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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
CATTLE RUSH ON A NIGHT CAMP, by CHARLES MACALISTER First Line: Look out on your left,' said mckenzie, 'the cattle are off like a streak! Last Line: It was plain that the cattle conceded we had beaten them bad in the rush. Subject(s): Cattle; Drovers | |||
"LOOK out on your left," said McKenzie, "the cattle are off like a streak!— Rouse up the camp as you're passing"—his words seemed to end in a shriek. And instantly into the saddle and out in the teeth of the rain, We followed like fiends demented out o'er the soft Boree plain; The splash of the hoofs through the gilgais and snapping of horns far in front As the mad cattle raced helter-skelter, solely our guide in the hunt. "H—ll take it, I'm down," said the darkie, "walla-walla make terrible hole." But no time had I to stay nursing, or think of a body or soul, But to get to the head ere they scattered out through the scrubs on the right. So on with the dogs racing after, we rode through the depths of the night Till, presently, down went my charger, hard o'er a log in the mud— And when I arose shortly after, all shaken and dripping with blood, And my brave stockhorse "Taffy" bespattered, I knew as I mounted again There's many a game more alluring than a break on the Billabong plain. But the maddest of breaks has an ending—and after a twenty-mile run, We headed the badly-blown leaders, and with the first tint of the sun While the mists of the night were departing we leisurely counted the cost: The black had a leg badly broken, our young British drover was "lost", McKenzie was battered all over, and Nicholls as sore as myself, And if hospitals there were availing we'd all have been laid on the shelf; But only six pikers were missing, and scarcely a dozen were maimed— Some minus eyes, others horns, and others a little lamed— So we reckoned we'd call ourselves lucky, and on through the rest of the bush, It was plain that the cattle conceded we had beaten them bad in the rush. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE FALLEN TREE HOTEL by WILL CARTER THE PHANTOM MOB by W. H. FLEMING ANDY'S GONE WITH CATTLE by HENRY HERTZBERG LAWSON BALLAD OF THE DROVER by HENRY HERTZBERG LAWSON A WILDFLOWER BY THE WAY by WILLIAM HENRY OGILVIE FROM THE GULF by WILLIAM HENRY OGILVIE THE LAST MUSTER by WILLIAM HENRY OGILVIE THE TRAVELLING POST OFFICE by ANDREW BARTON PATERSON THE DROVERS by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER GOLDWING MOTH by CARL SANDBURG |
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