It will be remembered that, a few years back, a party of stockmen (several of whom were afterwards executed for the crime) made wholesale massacre of a small tribe of defenceless Blacks, to the number, it is believed, of more than a score, heaping their bodies as they slaughtered them, upon a large fire kindled for the purpose. Of this doomed tribe, one woman only, with her infant as it appeared subsequently on evidence, escaped the Whiteman's vengeance. And this woman, after having fled to a considerable distance from the scene of the massacre, and when wearied and overtaken by the night is supposed to make the following lament.
Oh, I would further fly my child,
To make thee safer yet
From the unsparing Whiteman's
Dread hand, all murder-wet!
Yet bear thee on, as I have borne,
So stealthily and fleet,
But darkness shuts the forest,
And thorns are in my feet!
Oh, moan not! I would give this braid
That once bound Hibbi's brow,
But for a single palmful
Of water for thee now.
Ah, spring not to his name! -- no more
To glad us may he come!
Afar his ashes smoulder
Beneath the blasted Gum --
All charred and blasted by the fire
The Whiteman kindled there,
To burn our murdered kindred,
And scorch us to despair!
Oh, moan not! I would give this braid
That once bound Hibbi's brow,
But for a single palmful
Of water for thee now.
And but for thee, I would their fire
Had eaten me as fast!
Hark! do I hear death cry?
Yet drowning up the blast?
But no! -- when his bound hands had signed
The way that we should fly,
Thrown on the pyre fresh bleeding,
I saw thy father die!
Oh, moan not! I would give this braid,
His first fond gift to me,
But for a single palmful
Of water for thee now.
No more shall his loud tomahawk
Be plied for our relief;
The streams have lost for ever
The shadow of a chief;
The fading track of his fleet foot
May guide not as before;
And the echo of the mountains
Shall answer him no more.
Oh, moan not! I would give this braid,
Thy father's gift to me,
But for a single palmful
Of water now for thee.
First published in The Weekly Register of Politics, Facts and General Literature, 26 July 1845;
and later in
The Bushrangers, a Play in Five Acts and Other Poems by Charles Harpur, 1853;
Australian Ballads and Rhymes: Poems Inspired by Life and Scenery in Australia and New Zealand edited by Douglas Sladen, 1888;
A Treasury of Colonial Poetry, 1982;
The Poetical Works of Charles Harpur edited by Elizabeth Perkins, 1984; and
Family Ties:Australian Poems of the Family edited by Jennifer Strauss, 1998.
Note: this poem is also known by the title A Wail from the Bush. It references the Myall Creek massacre of 1838.
Author reference sites: Austlit, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Australian Poetry Library
See also.
Oh, I would further fly my child,
To make thee safer yet
From the unsparing Whiteman's
Dread hand, all murder-wet!
Yet bear thee on, as I have borne,
So stealthily and fleet,
But darkness shuts the forest,
And thorns are in my feet!
Oh, moan not! I would give this braid
That once bound Hibbi's brow,
But for a single palmful
Of water for thee now.
Ah, spring not to his name! -- no more
To glad us may he come!
Afar his ashes smoulder
Beneath the blasted Gum --
All charred and blasted by the fire
The Whiteman kindled there,
To burn our murdered kindred,
And scorch us to despair!
Oh, moan not! I would give this braid
That once bound Hibbi's brow,
But for a single palmful
Of water for thee now.
And but for thee, I would their fire
Had eaten me as fast!
Hark! do I hear death cry?
Yet drowning up the blast?
But no! -- when his bound hands had signed
The way that we should fly,
Thrown on the pyre fresh bleeding,
I saw thy father die!
Oh, moan not! I would give this braid,
His first fond gift to me,
But for a single palmful
Of water for thee now.
No more shall his loud tomahawk
Be plied for our relief;
The streams have lost for ever
The shadow of a chief;
The fading track of his fleet foot
May guide not as before;
And the echo of the mountains
Shall answer him no more.
Oh, moan not! I would give this braid,
Thy father's gift to me,
But for a single palmful
Of water now for thee.
First published in The Weekly Register of Politics, Facts and General Literature, 26 July 1845;
and later in
The Bushrangers, a Play in Five Acts and Other Poems by Charles Harpur, 1853;
Australian Ballads and Rhymes: Poems Inspired by Life and Scenery in Australia and New Zealand edited by Douglas Sladen, 1888;
A Treasury of Colonial Poetry, 1982;
The Poetical Works of Charles Harpur edited by Elizabeth Perkins, 1984; and
Family Ties:Australian Poems of the Family edited by Jennifer Strauss, 1998.
Note: this poem is also known by the title A Wail from the Bush. It references the Myall Creek massacre of 1838.
Author reference sites: Austlit, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Australian Poetry Library
See also.
