Laurel · Henry Lawson · In the Days When the World Was Wide

Eurunderee

Henry Lawson (1867–1922) · 1896

anapaestic tetrameter · AABBCC · 30 lines · from In the Days When the World Was Wide

There are scenes in the distance where beauty is not,On the desolate flats where gaunt appletrees rot.Where the brooding old ridge rises up to the breezeFrom his dark lonely gullies of stringy-bark trees,There are voice-haunted gaps, ever sullen and strange,But Eurunderee lies like a gem in the range.

Still I see in my fancy the dark-green and blueOf the box-covered hills where the five-corners grew;And the rugged old sheoaks that sighed in the bendO'er the lily-decked pools where the dark ridges end,And the scrub-covered spurs running down from the PeakTo the deep grassy banks of Eurunderee Creek.

On the knolls where the vineyards and fruit-gardens areThere's a beauty that even the drought cannot mar;For I noticed it oft, in the days that are lost,As I trod on the siding where lingered the frost,When the shadows of night from the gullies were goneAnd the hills in the background were flushed by the dawn.

I was there in late years, but there's many a changeWhere the Cudgegong River flows down through the range,For the curse of the town with the railroad had come,And the goldfields were dead. And the girl and the chumAnd the old home were gone, yet the oaks seemed to speakOf the hazy old days on Eurunderee Creek.

And I stood by that creek, ere the sunset grew cold,When the leaves of the sheoaks are traced on the gold,And I thought of old things, and I thought of old folks,Till I sighed in my heart to the sigh of the oaks;For the years waste away like the waters that leakThrough the pebbles and sand of Eurunderee Creek.

Words in this poem

gaunt a.: Attenuated, as with fasting or suffering; lean; meager; pinched and grim. [Cf. Norw. gand a thin pointed stick, a tall and thin man, and W. gwan weak.]
haunted a.: Inhabited by, or subject to the visits of, apparitions; frequented by a ghost.
sullen a.: Lonely; solitary; desolate. Wyclif (Job iii. 14). [OE. solein, solain, lonely, sullen; through Old French fr. (assumed) LL. solanus solitary, fr. L. solus alone. See Sole, a.]
siding n.: Attaching one's self to a party.
chum n.: A roommate, especially in a college or university; an old and intimate friend. [Perh. a contraction fr. comrade or chamber fellow: cf. also AS. cuma a comer, guest.]
hazy a.: Thick with haze; somewhat obscured with haze; not clear or transparent. [From Haze, n.]
folks n.: In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

Eurunderee is in the public domain. This text is taken from In the Days When the World Was Wide, and Other Verses, Project Gutenberg ebook #214; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.

Cite as: Henry Lawson, Eurunderee, in In the Days When the World Was Wide (1896), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #214, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lawson-world-was-wide/eurunderee.html, id L23231.

Form and metre

Eurunderee is 30 lines in 5 stanzas of 6 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABBCC. The metre is anapaestic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).

See other poems in anapaestic tetrameter.

Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.

Rhyme words, stanza by stanza

The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.

1 AABBCC not^A · rot^A · breeze^B · trees^B · strange^C · range^C
2 AABBCC blue^A · grew^A · bend^B · end^B · peak^C · creek^C
3 AABBCC are^A · mar^A · lost^B · frost^B · gone^C · dawn^C
4 AABBCC change^A · range^A · come^B · chum^B · speak^C · creek^C
5 AABBCC cold^A · gold^A · folks^B · oaks^B · leak^C · creek^C

Scansion, line by line

Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against anapaestic tetrameter. How this is done.

Line	Syl.	Stress
There are scenes in the distance where beauty is not,	12	·····/˘·/˘··
On the desolate flats where gaunt appletrees rot.	11	··/˘·······
Where the brooding old ridge rises up to the breeze	12	··/˘··/˘····
From his dark lonely gullies of stringy-bark trees,	12	···/˘/˘·/˘··
There are voice-haunted gaps, ever sullen and strange,	12	···/˘·/˘/˘··
But Eurunderee lies like a gem in the range.	12	············
Still I see in my fancy the dark-green and blue	12	·····/˘·····
Of the box-covered hills where the five-corners grew;	12	···/˘····/˘·
And the rugged old sheoaks that sighed in the bend	12	··/˘˘·······
O'er the lily-decked pools where the dark ridges end,	12	··/˘·····/˘·
And the scrub-covered spurs running down from the Peak	12	···/˘·/˘····
To the deep grassy banks of Eurunderee Creek.	12	···/˘·······
On the knolls where the vineyards and fruit-gardens are	12	·····/˘··/˘·
There's a beauty that even the drought cannot mar;	12	··/˘·/˘··/˘·
For I noticed it oft, in the days that are lost,	12	··/˘········
As I trod on the siding where lingered the frost,	12	·····/˘·/˘··
When the shadows of night from the gullies were gone	12	··/·····/˘··
And the hills in the background were flushed by the dawn.	12	·····/······
I was there in late years, but there's many a change	12	········/˘··
Where the Cudgegong River flows down through the range,	12	·····/˘·····
For the curse of the town with the railroad had come,	12	········/···
And the goldfields were dead. And the girl and the chum	12	··/·········
And the old home were gone, yet the oaks seemed to speak	12	············
Of the hazy old days on Eurunderee Creek.	12	··/˘········
And I stood by that creek, ere the sunset grew cold,	12	········/···
When the leaves of the sheoaks are traced on the gold,	12	········˘···
And I thought of old things, and I thought of old folks,	12	············
Till I sighed in my heart to the sigh of the oaks;	12	············
For the years waste away like the waters that leak	12	····˘/··/˘··
Through the pebbles and sand of Eurunderee Creek.	12	··/˘········

The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.

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In the Days When the World Was Wide