The floods rush high in the gully under,
And the lightnings lash at the shrinking trees; Or the cattle down from the ranges blunderAs the fires drive by on the summer breeze; Still the feeble horse at the right hour wanders , To the lonely ring, though the whistle"s dumb, And with hanging head by the bow he ponders,Where the whim boy"s gone, why the shifts don"t come.
But there comes a night when he sees lights glowing,In the roofless huts and the ravaged mill;When he hears again all the stampers going- Though the huts are dark and the stampers still; When he sees the steam to the black roof clinging As its shadows roll on the silver sands,And he knows the voice of his driver singing,And the knocker"s clang where the brace-man stands.
See the old horse take, like a creature dreaming, On the ring once more his accustomed place; But the moonbeams full on the ruins streamingShow the scattered timbers and grass-grown brace. Yet he hears the sled in the smithy falling,And the empty truck as it rattles back,Drawn by John Rowell
"He feels the strain on his untouched shoulder. "And the boy who stands by the anvil, calling;And he turns and backs, and he "takes up slack. "While the old drum creaks, and the shadows shiver, As the wind sweeps by, and the hut doors close, And the bats dip down in the shaft or quiver,In the ghostly light, round the grey horse goes; And he feels the strain on his untouched shoulder, Hears again the voice that was dear to him,Sees the form he knew,-and his heart grows bolder As he works his shift by the broken whim.
He hears in the sluices the water rushing,
As the buckets drain and the doors fall back; When the early dawn in the east is blushing, He is limping still round the old, old track. Now he pricks his ears with a neigh, replying, To a call unspoken, with eyes aglow,And he sways and sinks in the circle, dying; From the ring no more will the grey horse go.
Edward Dyson, in Rhymes from the Mines
Author.-Edward Dyson (1865-1931), was born in Victoria. During the mining days he worked as whim-boy and battery-feeder at the mines. He began writing at nineteen, and from then on was a frequent contributor to many Australian papers. His published works includeRhymes from the Mines, Below and on Top, The Gold-stealers, The Roaring Fifties, Factory "Ands, The Golden Shanty, The Missing Link, Tommy the Hawker, Benno, The Love of Launcelot, Spats"s Factory.
General Notes.-What is the purpose of a whim? What are stampers,the knocker, the brace, sluices, the bow, the shaft, the drum? Notice in the rhythm how anap?st and iambus alternate. Pick out the most pathetic phrases, the most alliterative, the most sibilant. Is the word- picture wholly true and convincing? Write a deion of a gold-mine you have visited, or an old mining camp, or a mining town.