LESSON 30 SONG OF THE CATTLE HUNTERS

SONG OF THE CATTLE HUNTERS

The "Song of the Cattle Hunters" was written by Henry Clarence Kendall (1841-1882), an Australian poet whose poems are full of his love for Australian scenery and bush-life

WHILE the morning light beams on the fern-matted streams,

And the water pools flash in its glow,

Down the ridges we fly with a loud, ringing cry—

Down the ridges and gullies we go.

And the cattle we hunt—they are racing in front,

With a roar like the thunder of waves,

As the beat and the beat of our swift horses' feet

Start the echoes away from their caves—

As the beat and the beat

Of our swift horses' feet

Start the echoes away from their caves.

Like a wintry shore that the waters ride o'er,

All the low-lands are filling with sound;

For swiftly we gain where the herds on the plain,

Like a tempest ［1］ , are tearing the ground.

And we follow them hard to the rails of the yard ［2］ ,

Over gulches ［3］ and mountain-tops grey,

Where the beat and the beat of our swift horses' feet

Will die with the echoes away—

Where the beat and the beat

Of our swift horses' feet

Will die with the echoes away.

—HENRY CLARENCE KENDALL

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［1 ］ tempest: Storm, commotion.

［2 ］ yard: Stockyard; a place into which cattle are gathered before sending them away.

［3 ］ gulch: Gully; dry bed of a torrent.