They left the vine-wreathed cottage and the mansion on the hill,
The houses in the busy streets where life is never still,
The pleasures of the city, and the friends they cherished best:
For love they faced the wilderness -the Women of the West.
The roar, and rush, and fever of the city died away,
And the old-time joys and faces-they were gone for many a day;
In their place the lurching coach-wheel, or the creaking bullock-chains,
O'er the everlasting sameness of the never-ending plains.
In the slab-built, zinc-roofed homestead of some lately taken run,
In the tent beside the bankment of a railway just begun,
In the huts on new selections, in the camps of man's unrest,
On the frontiers of the Nation, live the Women of the West.
The red sun robs their beauty and, in weariness and pain,
The slow years steal the nameless grace that never comes again;
And there are hours men cannot soothe, and words men cannot say
The nearest woman's face may be a hundred miles away.
The wide bush holds the secrets of their longing and desires,
When the white stars in reverence light their holy altar fires,
And silence, like the touch of God, sinks deep into the breast
Perchance He hears and understands the Women of the West.
For them no trumpet sounds the call, no poet plies his arts
They only hear the beating of their gallant, loving hearts.
But they have sung with silent lives the song all songs above?
The holiness of sacrifice, the dignity of love.
Well have we held our fathers creed. No call has passed us by.
We faced and fought the wilderness, we sent our sons to die.
And we have hearts to do and dare, and yet, o'er all the rest,
The hearts that made the Nation were the Women of the West.
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Surprised
Had no idea this was about Australia until i read the comments and saw the author`s bio. The zinc roofs should have provided the clue. Assumed it was about the wild American west, particularly about the tented camps. -
Beautiful in reflecting a code of honor - for me it brings images not just of settlers of the american west, but rather more intensly the photos of depression era dust-bowl farm wives - stoic, whose goal is the preservation of the family - "The Grapes of Wrath" - in a beautiful Australian story
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Beautiful beginning and end to this one. Overall, this was a magnificient poem with a lot of meaning to it. The style was nice as well. Great work.
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I have never read this but i liked it.
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Same again for me I am afraid...I haven't read this one before either. I liked it very much though. I loved the whole story line about women and what they go through out west etc. I am originally from an outback town myself and I know how hard it can be.
Countrybabe
Edited on Feb 24, 11:10 p.m. because ''. -
Coming from not only an outback town but one that has mining as it beginning the women have endured a lot and have supported the town as much as the men. This really rang true to me.
Mia
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Many poems and stories have been written over the decades as tribute to the men, the pioneers of Australia so to see such a hard-to-the-core tribute to the Women is a rare find.
Love and sacrifice seemed to be the basis of these women's lives and this poem by Evans is a worthy tribute.
The final line, to me, sums it all up to a statment of truth for these women who bore so much.
Vonnie~~
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- Women of the West by George Essex Evans, with 1 responses
