The Wrecked Aeroplane

Leon Gellert 1892 (Australia) – 1977



Unhappy craft of Daedalus reborn,
That liest prone with white wings torn,
And, like some giant prehistoric bird, with throb-
bing sound
Doest beat they wings on unresponsive ground.
Forlorn! Forlorn!

This very morn didst set out with thy plume
Yet damp from thine Icarian tomb,
To plough in mirth again the Stygian wave. With
launching cry
And sails outset didst dive the unattempted sky
To doom! To doom!

The early reaper at the start of day
Pauses ‘mid the falling hay,
And stands in wond’ring gaze, with eyes upturned
to watch they flight;
To him dost seem some goblin that the lifting nigh
Hath gone astray.

About thee in they meteor flight along
The shore, the shrieking sea birds throng
In clustered clouds of angry rivalry, and skim the
sea
To rise and dip again, and follow with their free
Wild tuneless song.

Unfledged, untimely birdling of a breath!
No useless shroud hast thou, nor wreath.
They flight was brief, yet wert thou eagle-hearted
as of yore.
When fearlessly didst flee that alien Cretan shore
To sink in death.

And now the furrowed earth holds fast they wings,
While far afield the ox-bell rings
A strange, soft dirge. Thy blood is dropping on
the frightened grass;
The night is hushed. A sad, scarce-moving breeze
doth pass,
And passing sings.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:06 min read
94

Quick analysis:

Scheme AAXBBA CCXDDC EEBXDE FFXGGF HXXIIH JJXKXKJ
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,242
Words 222
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 7

Leon Gellert

Leon Maxwell Gellert was an Australian poet. He was born in Walkerville, a suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. He was subjected to bullying by his father, a Methodist of Hungarian extraction, to which he reacted by learning self-defence at the YMCA. After an education at Adelaide High School, he embarked on a teaching career; first as a student-teacher at Unley High School then at the University of Adelaide's Teacher Training College. He enlisted with the Australian Imperial Forces 10th Battalion within weeks of the outbreak of the Great War and sailed for Cairo on 22 October 1914. He landed at Ari Burnu Beach, Gallipoli on 25 April 1915, was wounded and repatriated as medically unfit in June 1916. He attempted to re-enlist but was soon found out. He returned to teaching at Norwood Public School. During periods of inactivity he had been indulging his appetite for writing poetry. Songs of a Campaign was his first published book of verse, and was favourably reviewed by The Bulletin. Angus & Robertson soon published a new edition, illustrated by Norman Lindsay. His second, The Isle of San, also illustrated by Lindsay, was not so well received however. more…

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