Skeeta [poem by Barcroft Boake]

[Editor: This poem by Barcroft Boake was published in Where the Dead Men Lie and Other Poems (1897).]

Skeeta

Our Skeeta was married! our Skeeta! the tomboy and pet of the place —
No more as a maiden we’d greet her; no more would her pert little face
Light up the chill gloom of the parlour; no more would her deft little hands
Serve drinks to the travel-stained caller on his way to more southerly lands:
No more would she chaff the rough drovers and send them away with a smile;
No more would she madden her lovers demurely, with womanish guile —
The ‘prince’ from the great Never Never, with light touch of lips and of hand
Had come, and enslaved her for ever — a potentate bearded and tanned
From the land where the white mirage dances its dance of death over the plains,
With the glow of the sun in his glances, the lust of the West in his veins;
His talk of wild cattle and rushes — a curious slang on his lips —
Of narrow escapes and of brushes with niggers on perilous trips;
A supple-thewed, desert-bred rover, with naught to commend him but this:
That he was her idol, her lover, who’d fettered her heart with a kiss.

They were wed — and he took her to Warren, where she in her love was content;
But town-life to him was too foreign, so back to the droving he went:
A man away down on the border of Vic. bought some cattle from Cobb,
And gave Harry Parker the order to go to the Gulf for the mob:
And he went, for he held her love cheaper than his wish to re-live the old life —
Or his reason might yet have been deeper — I called it deserting his wife!

Then one morning his horses were mustered; the start on the journey was made; —
A clatter, an oath through the dust heard, was the last of the long cavalcade.
As we stood by the stockyard assembled — poor child! how she strove to be brave!
But yet I could see how she trembled at the careless farewell that he gave.
We brought her back home on the morrow; but none of us ever may learn
Of the fight that she fought to keep sorrow at bay till her husband’s return.
Her girlhood had gone, and in going had left her in bitterness steeped:
How gladsome and gay was the sowing! how bitter the crop that she reaped!
Her girlhood had gone, and had left her a woman in all but in years —
Of laughter and joy had bereft her, and brought in their place nought but tears.

Yet still, as the months passed, a treasure was brought her by Love, ere he fled;
And garments of infantile measure she fashioned with needle and thread:
She fashioned with linen and laces and ribbons a nest for her bird,
While colour returned to her face as the bud of maternity stirred.
It blossomed and died: we arrayed it in all its soft splendour of white,
And sorrowing took it and laid it in the earth whence it sprung, out of sight:
She wept not at all — only whitened — as Death, in his pitiless quest,
Leant over her pillow and tightened the throat of the child at her breast.
She wept not: her soul was too tired; for waiting is harrowing work;
And then I bethought me and wired away to the agents in Bourke.
’Twas little enough I could glean there; ’twas little enough that they knew:
They answered he hadn’t been seen there, but might in a week — perchance two.

She wept not at all — only whitened with staring too long at the night:
There was only one time when she brightened — that time when red dust hove in sight,
And settled and hung on the backs of the cattle, and altered their spots,
While the horses swept up, with their packs of blue blankets and jingling pint-pots.
She always was set upon meeting those boisterous cattle-men, lest
Her husband had sent her a greeting by one of them, in from the West.
Not one of them ever owned to him, or seemed to remember the name:
(The truth was they all of them knew him, but wouldn’t tell her of his shame)
But never, though long time she waited, did her faith in the faithless grow weak;
And each time the outer door grated an eager flush sprang to her cheek:

’Twasn’t him, and it died with a flicker; and then what I’d long dreaded came:
I was serving two drovers with liquor when one of them mentioned his name.
‘Oh, yes!’ said the other one, winking, ‘on the Paroo I saw him: he’d been
In Eulo a fortnight then, drinking, and driving about with “The Queen,”
While the bullocks were going to glory, and his billet was not worth a damn!’
I told him to cut short the story, as I pulled-to the door with a slam.
Too late! for the words were loud-spoken, and Skeeta was out in the hall:
Then I knew that a girl’s heart was broken, as I heard a low cry and a fall.

And then came a day when the doctor went home, for the truth was avowed;
And I knew that my hands, which had rocked her in childhood, would fashion her shroud:
I knew we should tenderly carry and lay her where many more lie —
Ah, why will the girls love and marry, when men are not worthy? — ah, why?
She lay there a-dying, our Skeeta: not e’en did she stir at my kiss:
In the next world, perchance, we may greet her; but never, ah, never, in this!

Like the last breath of air in a gully, that sighs as the sun slowly dips,
To the knell of a heart beating dully her soul struggled out on her lips;
But she lifted great eyelids and pallid, while once more beneath them there glowed
The fire of old Love, as she rallied at sound of hoofs out on the road.
They rang sharp and clear on the metal: they ceased at the gate in the lane:
A pause! — and we heard the beats settle in long, swinging cadence again.
With a rattle, a rush, and a clatter the rider came down by the store,
And neared us; but what did it matter? he never pulled rein at the door;
But over the brow of the hill he sped on with a low muffled roll —
’Twas only young Smith on his filly: he passed — and so too did her soul.

Weeks after, I went down one morning to trim the white rose that had grown
And clasped, with its tender adorning, the plain little cross of white stone.
In the lane dusty drovers were wheeling dull cattle, with turbulent sound;
But I paused as I saw a man kneeling, with his forehead pressed low on the mound.
Already he’d heard me approaching; and slowly I saw him up-rise
And move away, sullenly slouching his cabbage-tree over his eyes.
I never said anything to him as he mounted his horse at the gate:
He didn’t know me; but I knew him — the husband who came back too late!

Source:
Barcroft Boake, Where the Dead Men Lie and Other Poems, Sydney (NSW): Angus and Robertson, 1897, pp. 86-92

Also published in:
The Bulletin (Sydney, NSW), 17 December 1892, p. 14, columns 1-2 [by Barcroft H. Boake, N. S. Wales]
The Worker (Sydney, NSW), 20 July 1910, p. 5 (A.W.U. Edition)

Relevant notes from the “Notes to poems” section in this book:
20. SKEETA, p. 86. — Posthumously printed in The Bulletin, December 17, 1892. Signed ‘Barcroft H. Boake, N. S. Wales.’ There was a sub-title — ‘An Old Servant’s Story.’

Editor’s notes:
Two of the images for this poem were sourced from its original appearance in The Bulletin (17 December 1892).

bereft = to be deprived of, to lack, or to have lost something; to be without something

cabbage-tree = cabbage-tree hat [see: cabbage-tree hat]

cabbage-tree hat = a wide-brimmed hat made from the leaves of the Australian cabbage tree; cabbage-tree hats were commonly worn in colonial Australia

chaff = tease; banter; joking about or teasing in a good-natured or light-hearted fashion

e’en = (archaic) a contraction of “even”

ere = (archaic) before (from the Middle English “er”, itself from the Old English “aer”, meaning early or soon)

Eulo = a town in the Shire of Paroo, Queensland
See: “Eulo, Queensland”, Wikipedia

fettered = chained, restrained, restricted, with a fetter attached (a fetter is a chain, manacle, or shackle placed around a prisoner’s ankle)

filly = a young female horse (especially a female horse less than four or five years old); a young woman (especially an attractive or pretty young woman)

gay = happy, joyous, carefree; well-decorated, bright, attractive (in modern times it may especially refer to a homosexual, especially a male homosexual; can also refer to something which is no good, pathetic, useless)

knell = the sound of a bell which has been rung slowly (i.e. in a solemn manner), especially for a funeral, or to announce or mark a death; a sound or sign which announces, indicates, foretells, or warns of the death, end, extinction, or failure, of a person, group, movement, civilisation, etc.; a mournful, ominous, or warning sound

mob = a large group of animals, especially used when referring to cattle, horses, kangaroos, and sheep; also used to refer to a group of people, sometimes — although definitely not always — used in a negative or derogatory sense (possibly as an allusion to a group of dumb or wild animals), but also used in a positive sense (e.g. “they’re my mob”), especially amongst Australian Aborigines

morrow = (archaic) the next day, tomorrow

Never Never = remote and isolated sparsely-inhabited desert country in Australia (may be rendered with or without a hyphen: Never Never, Never-Never)

nigger = a black person; someone of black African racial background; in an historical Australian context, “nigger” could refer to 1) an Australian Aborigine, 2) a Pacific Islander, also known as a kanaka, 3) someone of black African racial origin, also known as a negro, or 4) someone of black Central Asian racial origin, such as people from India (“nigger” is usually regarded as a derogatory term, except that it was often used as a neutral term in historical practice, and except when used by or between people of a black racial background)

nought = (an alternative spelling of “naught”) nothing; zero; failure, without result; lost, ruined (older meanings are: ruined, useless, worthless; morally bad, wicked)

owned = confess; admit or affirm that something is true

Paroo = the Paroo River, located in the South West region of Queensland and the Far West region of New South Wales; the Shire of Paroo, a local government area in the South West region of Queensland; a locality in Western Australia; a large pastoral property in Western Australia
See: 1) “Paroo_River”, Wikipedia
2) “Shire of Paroo”, Wikipedia
3) “Paroo, Western Australia”, Wikipedia
4) “Paroo Station”, Wikipedia

pint-pot = (also spelt: pint pot) a beer glass, mug, or drinking vessel that holds a pint (especially as used for beer or another alcoholic drink), commonly made of pewter

potentate = a ruler with great authority and power (such as a dictator, monarch, or sovereign)

pulled rein = stopped; stopped and visited (to pull on the reins of a horse to stop it, so that the rider can greet or visit someone)

shroud = a layer of material which covers, surrounds, or enwraps something; in the context of death, a burial shroud (a cloth or garment used for wrapping a corpse)

thew = well-developed muscle or sinew; power, strength, or vitality of the muscles

’twas = (archaic) a contraction of “it was”

’twasn’t = (archaic) a contraction of “it wasn’t” (“it was not”)

Vic. = an abbreviation of Victoria (a colony in Australia from 1851, then a state in 1901)

Warren = a town in the Orana Region of New South Wales
See: “Warren, New South Wales”, Wikipedia

wired = sent a message by telegraph (a “wire” is telegram or message sent by telegraph)