Poem by Henry Kendall

Poems and Songs (1862). Song of the Cattle-Hunters

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 lowlands are filling with sound;
For swiftly we gain where the herds on the plain,
 Like a tempest, are tearing the ground!
And we'll follow them hard to the rails of the yard,
 O'er the gulches 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!

1. Early Poems (1859-70). In Memoriam—Nicol Drysdale Stenhouse
2. Other Poems (1871-82). How the Melbourne Cup was Won
3. Early Poems (1859-70). Cui Bono?
4. Other Poems (1871-82). Aboriginal Death-Song
5. Other Poems (1871-82). Sydney Exhibition Cantata

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