Jackey Jackey gallops on a horse like a swallow
Where the carbines bark and the blackboys hollo.
When the traps give chase (may the devil take his power!)
He can ride ten mile in a quarter of an hour
Take horse and follow, and you'll hurt no feelings;
He can fly down waterfalls and jump through ceilings,
He can shoot off hats, for to have a bit of fun,
With a bulldog bigger than a buffalo-gun
Honeyed and profound in his conversation
When he bails up Mails on Long Tom Station,
In a flyaway coat with a black cravat,
A snow-white collar and a cabbage-tree hat.
Flowers in his button-hole and pearls in his pocket,
He comes like a ghost and he goes like a rocket
With a lightfoot heel on a blood-mare's flank
And a bagful of notes from the Joint Stock Bank
Many pretty ladies he could witch out of marriage,
Though he prig but a kiss in a bigwig's carriage;
For the cock of an eye or the lift of his reins,
They would run barefoot through Patrick's Plains.
Notes
William Westwood, the bushranger in the poem had a brief but eventful life.
He operated in and around the Berrima district of New South Wales, he escaped from cockatoo Island, led a prison riot on Norfolk Island, all this before he was hanged in 1846 when he was still in his twenties.
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Comments
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age
From guest a person (contact)
he was born 7th august, 1820 and died 13 october 1846 he was 26 when he died, not 25. Just saying...
MOD COMMENT
Thanks for your information about the highwayman.
Jim -
From guest Sally The Silly Stem (contact)
OH MY GOLLYYYY! this poem was truly a HOOT for me and i was just in awe at it truly fabulous oh my god YUR ALIIVVEE! what a scream! HOOLEY DOOLEY! -
From guest Michelle (contact)
"A Bushranger" is one of Slessors best ever poems in my opinion..if only there was more information on the net so that people could get to understand more and get more from it!!
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Jackey Jackey (Will Westwood)
From guest Bill Larkins (contact)
This wonderful Australian poem, and should be read to the rhythm of a galloping horse; I am convinced that is what Slessor requires. -
hey
From guest Rhianna (contact)
hey this poem was really great and thanks because i needed this poem for an school assignment! -
the sleekness and adventurous spirit of the wild... in vivid words ... good flow of words and rhyme
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really depicts the lifestyle of Westwood. Enchants you into a world of excitement.
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This is a great poem, set at a fast pace to give it a more adventurous feel.
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