[Editor: This poem by Barcroft Boake was published in Where the Dead Men Lie and Other Poems (1897).]
At the ‘J. C.’
None ever knew his name —
Honoured, or one of shame,
Highborn or lowly;
Only upon that tree
Two letters, J and C,
Carved by him, mark where he
Lay dying slowly.
Why came he to the West?
Had then the parent nest
Grown so distasteful?
What cause had he to shun
Life, ere ’twas well begun?
Was he that youngest son,
Of substance wasteful?
Were Fate and he at war?
Was it a penance, or
Renunciation?
Is it a glad release?
Has he at length found peace,
Now Death hath bid him cease
Peregrination?
Hands white, without a blot,
Told us that he was not
One of ‘the vulgar.’
What can those cyphers be? —
Two only, J and C,
Carved in his agony
Deep in the mulga.
Was there no woman’s face
Whose sunny smile might chase
Clouds from above him?
No bosom white as snow?
No lips to whisper low,
‘Why doth he seek to go?
Do I not love him?’
Haunted by flashing charms —
White bosoms, rounded arms,
Lips of fair ladies —
Striving to break some link:
Was ’t that which made him sink,
Dragged by the curse of drink
Deeper than Hades?
Now, wind across the grave,
Tuning a sultry stave,
Drearily whistles;
Stirring those branches where
Two silent cyphers stare —
Two letters of a prayer:
God’s Son’s initials.
Source:
Barcroft Boake, Where the Dead Men Lie and Other Poems, Sydney (NSW): Angus and Robertson, 1897, pp. 104-105
Also published in:
The Bulletin (Sydney, NSW), 9 January 1892, p. 14, column 4 [entitled “At the “J.C.” (West Queensland” (with no closing bracket); by Barcroft H. Boake, N. S. Wales]
Gwydir Examiner and Moree General Advertiser (Moree, NSW), 1 January 1898, p. 2 [under the title “Told by a Tree”]
Relevant notes from the “Notes to poems” section in this book:
23. AT THE ‘J.C.,’ p. 104. — Printed in The Bulletin, January 9, 1892. Signed ‘Bancroft H. Boake, N. S. Wales’ — ‘Bancroft’ a misprint. To the printed title ‘West Queensland’ was added.
Editor’s notes:
doth = (archaic) does
ere = (archaic) before (from the Middle English “er”, itself from the Old English “aer”, meaning early or soon)
God’s Son = (in the context of Christianity) Jesus Christ
Hades = Hell; in Greek mythology, the underworld home of the dead
hath = (archaic) has
mulga = in a geographic context “mulga” refers to an area where mulga trees grow in large numbers, i.e. a largely unsettled area
peregrination = a person’s life on earth, prior to their journey to the afterlife; a journey, a voyage; journeying, travelling, wandering (especially by walking); walking; a pilgrimage
stave = a wooden picket, plank, or slat (such as used in a stave-fence or a stave-wall)
’twas = (archaic) a contraction of “it was”
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