章节正文
They wish they could swear like Stingy Smith when he read that neighbour's note.
Page: 87
HARD LUCK
I left the course, and by my side
There walked a ruined tout -
A hungry creature evil-eyed,
Who poured this story out.
`You see,' he said, `there came a swell
`To Kensington to-day,
`And if I picked the winners well,
`A crown at least he'd pay.
`I picked three winners straight, I did,
`I filled his purse with pelf,
`And then he gave me half-a-quid,
`To back one for myself.
`A half-a-quid to me he cast,
`I wanted it indeed.
`So help me Bob, for two days past
`I haven't had a feed.
Page: 88
`But still I thought my luck was in,
`I couldn't go astray,
`I put it all on Little Min,
`And lost it straightaway.
`I haven't got a bite or bed,
`I'm absolutely stuck,
`So keep this lesson in your head:
`Don't over-trust your luck!'
The folks went homeward, near and far,
The tout, Oh! where was he?
Ask where the empty boilers are,
Beside the Circular Quay.
Page: 89
SONG OF THE FEDERATION
AS the nations sat together, grimlywaiting -
The fierce old nations battle-scarred -
Grown grey in their lusting and their hating,
Ever armed and ever ready keeping guard,
Through the tumult of their warlike preparation
And the half-stilled clamour of the drums
Came a voice crying, `Lo! a new-made nation,
To her place in the sisterhood she comes!'
And she came - she was beautiful as morning,
With the bloom of the roses in her mouth,
Like a young queen lavishly adorning
Her charms with the splendours of the South.
And the fierce old nations, looking on her,
Said, `Nay, surely she were quickly overthrown,
`Hath she strength for the burden laid upon her,
`Hath she power to protect and guard her own?
Then she spoke, and her voice was clear and ringing
In the ears of the nations old and gray,
Saying, `Hark, and ye shall hear my children singing
`Their war-song in countries far away.
`They are strangers to the tumult of the battle,
`They are few but their hearts are very strong,
`'Twas but yesterday they called unto the cattle,
`But they now sing Australia's marching song.'
SONG OF THE AUSTRALIANS IN ACTION
For the honour of Australia, our mother,
Side by side with our kin from over sea,
We have fought and we have tested one another,
And enrolled among the brotherhood are we.
There was never post of danger but we sought it
In the fighting, through the fire, and through the flood.
There was never prize so costly but we bought it,
Though we paid for its purchase with our blood.
Was there any road too rough for us to travel?
Was there any path too far for us to tread?
You can track us by the blood drops on the gravel
On the roads that we milestoned with our dead!
And for you, oh our young and anxious mother,
O'er your great gains keeping watch and ward,
Neither fearing nor despising any other,
We will hold your possessions with the sword.
.
.
.
.
.
Then they passed to the place of world-long sleeping,
The grey-clad figures with their dead,
To the sound of their women softly weeping
And the Dead March moaning at their head:
And the Nations, as the grim procession ended,
Whispered, `Child! But ye have seen the price we pay,
`From War may we ever be defended,
`Kneel ye down, new-made Sister - Let us Pray!'
Page: 92
THE OLD AUSTRALIAN WAYS
THE London lights are far abeam
Behind a bank of cloud,
Along the shore the gaslights gleam,
The gale is piping loud;
And down the Channel, groping blind,
We drive her through the haze
Towards the land we left behind -
The good old land of `never mind',
And old Australian ways.
The narrow ways of English folk
Are not for such as we;
They bear the long-accustomed yoke
Of staid conservancy:
But all our roads are new and strange,
And through our blood there runs
The vagabonding love of change
Page: 93
That drove us westward of the range
And westward of the suns.
The city folk go to and fro
Behind a prison's bars,
They never feel the breezes blow
And never see the stars;
They never hear in blossomed trees
The music low and sweet
Of wild birds making melodies,
Nor catch the little laughing breeze
That whispers in the wheat.
Our fathers came of roving stock
That could not fixed abide:
And we have followed field and flock
Since e'er we learnt to ride;
By miner's camp and shearing shed,
In land of heat and drought,
We followed where our fortunes led,
With fortune always on ahead
And always further out.
The wind is in the barley-grass,
The wattles are in bloom;
The breezes greet us as they pass
With honey-sweet perfume;
Page: 94
The parakeets go screaming by
With flash of golden wing,
And from the swamp the wild-ducks cry
Their long-drawn note of revelry,
Rejoicing at the Spring.
So throw the weary pen aside
And let the papers rest,
For we must saddle up and ride
Towards the blue hill's breast;
And we must travel far and fast
Across their rugged maze,
To find the Spring of Youth at last,
And call back from the buried past
The old Australian ways.
When Clancy took the drover's track
In years of long ago,
He drifted to the outer back
Beyond the Overflow;
By rolling plain and rocky shelf,
With stockwhip in his hand,
He reached at last, oh lucky elf,
The Town of Come-and-help-yourself
In Rough-and-ready Land.
Page: 95
And if it be that you would know
The tracks he used to ride,
Then you must saddle up and go
Beyond the Queensland side -
Beyond the reach of rule or law,
To ride the long day through,
In Nature's homestead - filled with awe
You then might see what Clancy saw
And know what Clancy knew.
Page: 96
THE BALLAD OF THE CALLIOPE
BY the far Samoan shore,
Where the league-long rollers pour
All the wash of the Pacific on the coral-guarded bay,
Riding lightly at their ease,
In the calm of tropic seas,
The three great nations' warships at their anchors proudly lay.
Riding lightly, head to wind,
With the coral reefs behind,
Three Germans and three Yankee ships were mirrored in the blue;
And on one ship unfurled
Was the flag that rules the world -
For on the old Calliope the flag of England flew.
Page: 97
When the gentle off-shore breeze,
That had scarcely stirred the trees,
Dropped down to utter stillness, and the glass began to fall,
Away across the main
Lowered the coming hurricane,
And far away to seaward hung the cloud wrack like a pall.
If the word had passed around,
`Let us move to safer ground;
`Let us steam away to seaward' - then this tale were not to tell!
But each Captain seemed to say
`If the others stay, I stay!'
And they lingered at their moorings till the shades of evening fell.
Then the cloud wrack neared them fast,
And there came a sudden blast,
And the hurricane came leaping down a thousand miles of main!
Like a lion on its prey,
Leapt the storm fiend on the bay,
And the vessels shook and shivered as their cables felt the strain.
Page: 98
As the surging seas came by,
That were running mountains high,
Page: 87
HARD LUCK
I left the course, and by my side
There walked a ruined tout -
A hungry creature evil-eyed,
Who poured this story out.
`You see,' he said, `there came a swell
`To Kensington to-day,
`And if I picked the winners well,
`A crown at least he'd pay.
`I picked three winners straight, I did,
`I filled his purse with pelf,
`And then he gave me half-a-quid,
`To back one for myself.
`A half-a-quid to me he cast,
`I wanted it indeed.
`So help me Bob, for two days past
`I haven't had a feed.
Page: 88
`But still I thought my luck was in,
`I couldn't go astray,
`I put it all on Little Min,
`And lost it straightaway.
`I haven't got a bite or bed,
`I'm absolutely stuck,
`So keep this lesson in your head:
`Don't over-trust your luck!'
The folks went homeward, near and far,
The tout, Oh! where was he?
Ask where the empty boilers are,
Beside the Circular Quay.
Page: 89
SONG OF THE FEDERATION
AS the nations sat together, grimlywaiting -
The fierce old nations battle-scarred -
Grown grey in their lusting and their hating,
Ever armed and ever ready keeping guard,
Through the tumult of their warlike preparation
And the half-stilled clamour of the drums
Came a voice crying, `Lo! a new-made nation,
To her place in the sisterhood she comes!'
And she came - she was beautiful as morning,
With the bloom of the roses in her mouth,
Like a young queen lavishly adorning
Her charms with the splendours of the South.
And the fierce old nations, looking on her,
Said, `Nay, surely she were quickly overthrown,
`Hath she strength for the burden laid upon her,
`Hath she power to protect and guard her own?
Then she spoke, and her voice was clear and ringing
In the ears of the nations old and gray,
Saying, `Hark, and ye shall hear my children singing
`Their war-song in countries far away.
`They are strangers to the tumult of the battle,
`They are few but their hearts are very strong,
`'Twas but yesterday they called unto the cattle,
`But they now sing Australia's marching song.'
SONG OF THE AUSTRALIANS IN ACTION
For the honour of Australia, our mother,
Side by side with our kin from over sea,
We have fought and we have tested one another,
And enrolled among the brotherhood are we.
There was never post of danger but we sought it
In the fighting, through the fire, and through the flood.
There was never prize so costly but we bought it,
Though we paid for its purchase with our blood.
Was there any road too rough for us to travel?
Was there any path too far for us to tread?
You can track us by the blood drops on the gravel
On the roads that we milestoned with our dead!
And for you, oh our young and anxious mother,
O'er your great gains keeping watch and ward,
Neither fearing nor despising any other,
We will hold your possessions with the sword.
.
.
.
.
.
Then they passed to the place of world-long sleeping,
The grey-clad figures with their dead,
To the sound of their women softly weeping
And the Dead March moaning at their head:
And the Nations, as the grim procession ended,
Whispered, `Child! But ye have seen the price we pay,
`From War may we ever be defended,
`Kneel ye down, new-made Sister - Let us Pray!'
Page: 92
THE OLD AUSTRALIAN WAYS
THE London lights are far abeam
Behind a bank of cloud,
Along the shore the gaslights gleam,
The gale is piping loud;
And down the Channel, groping blind,
We drive her through the haze
Towards the land we left behind -
The good old land of `never mind',
And old Australian ways.
The narrow ways of English folk
Are not for such as we;
They bear the long-accustomed yoke
Of staid conservancy:
But all our roads are new and strange,
And through our blood there runs
The vagabonding love of change
Page: 93
That drove us westward of the range
And westward of the suns.
The city folk go to and fro
Behind a prison's bars,
They never feel the breezes blow
And never see the stars;
They never hear in blossomed trees
The music low and sweet
Of wild birds making melodies,
Nor catch the little laughing breeze
That whispers in the wheat.
Our fathers came of roving stock
That could not fixed abide:
And we have followed field and flock
Since e'er we learnt to ride;
By miner's camp and shearing shed,
In land of heat and drought,
We followed where our fortunes led,
With fortune always on ahead
And always further out.
The wind is in the barley-grass,
The wattles are in bloom;
The breezes greet us as they pass
With honey-sweet perfume;
Page: 94
The parakeets go screaming by
With flash of golden wing,
And from the swamp the wild-ducks cry
Their long-drawn note of revelry,
Rejoicing at the Spring.
So throw the weary pen aside
And let the papers rest,
For we must saddle up and ride
Towards the blue hill's breast;
And we must travel far and fast
Across their rugged maze,
To find the Spring of Youth at last,
And call back from the buried past
The old Australian ways.
When Clancy took the drover's track
In years of long ago,
He drifted to the outer back
Beyond the Overflow;
By rolling plain and rocky shelf,
With stockwhip in his hand,
He reached at last, oh lucky elf,
The Town of Come-and-help-yourself
In Rough-and-ready Land.
Page: 95
And if it be that you would know
The tracks he used to ride,
Then you must saddle up and go
Beyond the Queensland side -
Beyond the reach of rule or law,
To ride the long day through,
In Nature's homestead - filled with awe
You then might see what Clancy saw
And know what Clancy knew.
Page: 96
THE BALLAD OF THE CALLIOPE
BY the far Samoan shore,
Where the league-long rollers pour
All the wash of the Pacific on the coral-guarded bay,
Riding lightly at their ease,
In the calm of tropic seas,
The three great nations' warships at their anchors proudly lay.
Riding lightly, head to wind,
With the coral reefs behind,
Three Germans and three Yankee ships were mirrored in the blue;
And on one ship unfurled
Was the flag that rules the world -
For on the old Calliope the flag of England flew.
Page: 97
When the gentle off-shore breeze,
That had scarcely stirred the trees,
Dropped down to utter stillness, and the glass began to fall,
Away across the main
Lowered the coming hurricane,
And far away to seaward hung the cloud wrack like a pall.
If the word had passed around,
`Let us move to safer ground;
`Let us steam away to seaward' - then this tale were not to tell!
But each Captain seemed to say
`If the others stay, I stay!'
And they lingered at their moorings till the shades of evening fell.
Then the cloud wrack neared them fast,
And there came a sudden blast,
And the hurricane came leaping down a thousand miles of main!
Like a lion on its prey,
Leapt the storm fiend on the bay,
And the vessels shook and shivered as their cables felt the strain.
Page: 98
As the surging seas came by,
That were running mountains high,
- absolutely [´æbsəlu:tli]
ad.绝对地；确实 (初中英语单词) - circular [´sə:kjulə] a.圆形的 n.通知 (初中英语单词)
- waiting [´weitiŋ] n.等候；伺候 (初中英语单词)
- fierce [fiəs] a.残忍的；强烈的 (初中英语单词)
- yesterday [´jestədi] n.&ad.昨天；前不久 (初中英语单词)
- costly [´kɔstli] a.昂贵的；费用大的 (初中英语单词)
- anxious [´æŋkʃəs] a.担忧的；渴望的 (初中英语单词)
- softly [´sɔftli] ad.软化地；柔和地 (初中英语单词)
- procession [prə´seʃən] n.队伍 v.列队行进 (初中英语单词)
- channel [´tʃænəl] n.海峡；航道；途径 (初中英语单词)
- learnt [lə:nt] learn 的过去式(分词) (初中英语单词)
- saddle [´sædl] n.鞍子 v.装鞍(于) (初中英语单词)
- lightly [´laitli] ad.轻微地，稍微 (初中英语单词)
- proudly [´praudli] ad.骄傲地；傲慢地 (初中英语单词)
- yankee [´jæŋki] n.美国佬；美国公民 (初中英语单词)
- running [´rʌniŋ] a.奔跑的；流动的 (初中英语单词)
- homeward [´həumwəd] ad.&a.回家(的) (高中英语单词)
- grimly [´grimli] ad.严厉地；坚强地 (高中英语单词)
- tumult [´tju:mʌlt, ´tu:-] n.喧哗；激昂；烦乱 (高中英语单词)
- brotherhood [´brʌðəhud] n.兄弟情谊；兄弟关系 (高中英语单词)
- westward [´westwəd] a.向西的 n.西方；西部 (高中英语单词)
- rugged [´rʌgid] a.不平的；粗犷的 (高中英语单词)
- ballad [´bæləd] n.民歌，民谣 (高中英语单词)
- pacific [pə´sifik] a.和平的；温和的 (高中英语单词)
- stillness [´stilnis] n.不动；无声，寂静 (高中英语单词)
- warlike [´wɔ:laik] a.战争的；好战的 (英语四级单词)
- homestead [´həumsted] n.家宅，宅基 (英语四级单词)
- tropic [´trɔpik] n.热带地区；回归线 (英语四级单词)
- hurricane [´hʌrikən] n.飓风 (英语四级单词)
- lavishly [´læviʃli] ad.大方地；慷慨地 (英语六级单词)
- seaward [´si:wəd] a.&ad.朝海(的) (英语六级单词)
文章标签:名著
章节正文
京公网安备 11011202003401号
