Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE LAST ABORIGINAL, by WILLIAM SHARP Poet's Biography First Line: I see him sit, wild-eyed alone Last Line: Then sinks back on his unknown bier. Alternate Author Name(s): Macleod, Fiona Subject(s): Aborigines, Australian; Australia; Death; Fear; Night; Dead, The; Bedtime | ||||||||
I see him sit, wild-eyed, alone, Amidst gaunt, spectral, moonlit gums -- He waits for death: not once a moan From out his rigid fixt lips comes; His lank hair falls adown a face Haggard as any wave-worn stone; And in his eyes I dimly trace The memory of a vanished race. The lofty ancient gum-trees stand, Each grey and ghostly in the moon; The giants of an old strange land That was exultant in its noon When all our Europe was o'erturned With deluge and with shifting sand, With earthquakes that the hills inurned And central fires that fused and burned. The moon moves slowly through the vast And solemn skies; the night is still, Save when a warrigal springs past With dismal howl, or when the shrill Scream of a parrot rings which feels A twining serpent's fangs fixt fast, Or when a grey opossum squeals, Or long iguana, as it steals From bole to bole disturbs the leaves: But hush'd and still he sits -- who knows That all is o'er for him who weaves With inner speech, malign, morose, A curse upon the whites who came And gather'd up his race like sheaves Of thin wheat, fit but for the flame -- Who shot or spurned them without shame. He knows he shall not see again The creeks whereby the lyre-birds sing -- He shall no more upon the plain, Sun scorch'd, and void of water-spring, Watch the dark cassowaries sweep In startled flight, or, with spear lain In ready poise, glide, twist, and creep Where the brown kangaroo doth leap. No more in silent dawns he'll wait By still lagoons, and mark the flight Of black swans near: no more elate Whirl high the boomerang aright Upon some foe: he knows that now He too must share his race's night -- He scarce can know the white man's plough Will one day pass above his brow. Last remnant of the Austral race He sits and stares, with failing breath: The shadow deepens on his face, For 'midst the spectral gums waits death. A dingo's sudden howl swells near -- He stares once with a startled gaze, As half in wonder, half in fear, Then sinks back on his unknown bier. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE BREATH OF NIGHT by RANDALL JARRELL HOODED NIGHT by ROBINSON JEFFERS NIGHT WITHOUT SLEEP by ROBINSON JEFFERS WORKING OUTSIDE AT NIGHT by DENIS JOHNSON POEM TO TAKE BACK THE NIGHT by JUNE JORDAN COOL DARK ODE by DONALD JUSTICE POEM TO BE READ AT 3 A.M by DONALD JUSTICE |
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