A Sweltering Day in Australia

This is a humorous poem that focuses on the hard-to-pronounce names of places and creatures in Australia, as well as the extreme climate and the way that it affects people. The speaker uses a mixture of real names and some names that do not seem to be grounded in real Aboriginal words as a way to exaggerate how wildly different they consider Australia to be from what they are used to. The names used in the poem create a sense of absurdity while also mocking the overly sincere patriotic poetry of the time and presenting Australia as a much less hospitable place.

Try the Poem AnnotatorSelect any text to highlight, add notes, discover patterns, and build your personal study guide.A Sweltering Day in Australia
Mark Twain

The Bombola faints in the hot Bowral tree, Where fierce Mullengudgery's smothering fires Far from the breezes of Coolgardie Burn ghastly and blue as the day expires; 

And Murriwillumba complaineth in song For the garlanded bowers of Woolloomooloo, And the Ballarat Fly and the lone Wollongong They dream of the gardens of Jamberoo; 

The wallabi sighs for the Murrubidgee, For the velvety sod of the Munno Parah, Where the waters of healing from Muloowurtie Flow dim in the gloaming by Yaranyackah; 

The Koppio sorrows for lost Wolloway, And sigheth in secret for Murrurundi, The Whangeroo wombat lamenteth the day That made him an exile from Jerrilderie; 

The Teawamute Tumut from Wirrega's glade, The Nangkita swallow, the Wallaroo swan, They long for the peace of the Timaru shade And thy balmy soft airs, O sweet Mittagong! 

The Kooringa buffalo pants in the sun, The Kondoparinga lies gaping for breath, The Kongorong Camaum to the shadow has won, But the Goomeroo sinks in the slumber of death; 

In the weltering hell of the Moorooroo plain The Yatala Wangary withers and dies, And the Worrow Wanilla, demented with pain, To the Woolgoolga woodlands despairingly flies; 

Sweet Nangwarry's desolate, Coonamble wails, And Tungkillo Kuito in sables is drest, For the Whangerei winds fall asleep in the sails And the Booleroo life-breeze is dead in the west. 

Mypongo, Kapunda, O slumber no more Yankalilla, Parawirra, be warned There's death in the air! Killanoola, wherefore Shall the prayer of Penola be scorned? 

Cootamundra, and Takee, and Wakatipu, Toowoomba, Kaikoura are lost From Onkaparinga to far Oamaru All burn in this hell's holocaust! 

Paramatta and Binnum are gone to their rest In the vale of Tapanni Taroom, Kawakawa, Deniliquin - all that was best In the earth are but graves and a tomb! 

Narrandera mourns, Cameron answers not When the roll of the scathless we cry Tongariro, Goondiwindi, Woolundunga, the spot Is mute and forlorn where ye lie. 

Summary

‘A Sweltering Day in Australia’ describes Australia in exaggerated terms as a way to present it as somehow absurd and alien to the average American reader.

The poem opens by presenting a scene of fires in a place with little wind. The atmosphere is oppressive, but this is contrasted with the strange names that the speaker uses to describe places and creatures, some of which do not seem to have any basis in reality, being made up, apparently, for the poem.

Some of the creatures present in this scene long for other places where the climate is better. This idea continues as the poem progresses, with more creatures desiring escape from the suffering of the heat.

As the nonsensical names continue, the speaker looks at the place where they currently are, seeing it as somewhere hellish. It becomes clear that others have died in this place, showing that it has nothing to offer to anyone except death and misery.

Structure and Form

This poem is written in twelve quatrains with a regular rhyme scheme, but not a wholly regular meter. Most lines are close to iambic tetrameter or iambic trimeter, making the poem seem as though it comes close to common meter, but one reason that it fails to fully adhere to this meter is that the long and complex names – whether genuine Aboriginal or nonsense words – make it hard to stick to a strict meter. This also adds to the sense of how strange these names are, as they do not fit into any regular pattern.

Despite the strange names that are used throughout the poem, it still manages to maintain a regular rhyme scheme, which is ABAB throughout. This gives the poem a sense of rhythm and musicality, even with the strange names that don’t quite fit into the rhythm of the poem. Each one of the four-line stanzas presents a slightly different image of the scene that is being described.

Literary Devices

The speaker creates a vivid and strange scene in this poem, and they use a number of different literary devices to do this, including hyperbole, personification, satire, imagery, onomatopoeia, and juxtaposition.

• Hyperbole: When the speaker describes the heat of the place where the poem is set, they exaggerate the extent of the heat to add to the humorous tone of the poem, describing it as a “holocaust.”
• Personification: The animals that are encountered in the poem display human emotions, sighing and wishing to be elsewhere, in a way that expresses their discomfort in very relatable ways.
• Satire: The poem satirises Romantic language, such as with the word “complaineth” to mock Romantic poets, as the speaker describes the place in less than complimentary terms and contrasts this with the names that are used throughout the poem.
• Imagery: Right from the start of the poem, the stark imagery of the heat that is present in the poem creates a sense of an oppressive and dangerous atmosphere, with lines such as, “Burn ghastly and blue as the day expires.”
• Onomatopoeia: The sounds of the creatures, such as sighing and moaning, give an auditory element to the description, showing their distress clearly.
• Juxtaposition: The exaggerated names in the poem contrast with the hellish conditions that are being described, so that there is a serious subject and a ridiculous tone to the poem.

Themes

On a surface level, this poem appears as though it is about geography and landscapes, and the way in which animals attempt to endure in a landscape that has become incredibly inhospitable to them, wishing that they could be somewhere else that is much more pleasant to live in, and longing for a past where they had better lives.

However, there is more to this poem than just the scene that is being described. A large part of this poem is about languages, and the way in which a foreign language can sound completely alien to another person, taking the Aboriginal languages and exaggerating them as a way to make this point. As the poem continues, and the speaker starts to list more and more of these names, the poem becomes increasingly ridiculous. There are also elements of the poem that work as a satire of Romantic poetry from around the time when the poem was written.

Detailed Analysis

Line 1

The Bombola faints in the hot Bowral tree,

A dense cluster of potentially unfamiliar words is presented to the reader in the opening lines. Part of this unfamiliarity is engineered by Twain: the actual meaning of the word “Bombola” is stripped away to an extent, as Twain transforms it into a nonsense word which denotes a specific animal. This use of neologism, and the playful tone achieved through the plosive consonance of “Bombola” and “Bowral”, are reminiscent of Lewis Carroll’s poems, which were produced during the same era as Twain’s own works. Through this, Twain infuses the poem with the same light-hearted and upbeat tone as Carroll’s works.

Both “Bombola” and “Bowral” are words borrowed from Aboriginal language, firmly rooting the poem in Australia. “Bombola” refers to the ‘meeting of the waters’, which may denote the true species of the animal in the tree. A number of creatures are specific to estuaries, including birds, who are the most likely to be found in both water and foliage on dry land; as such, the word “Bombola” becomes a metonym for the bird.

On the other hand, “Bowral” means ‘large’ or ‘high’, transforming the name given to the tree into a literal description of its attributes. The tall tree provides the “Bombola” with a greater degree of shade than other plants, illustrating the extremity of the heat as the creature “faints” even beneath this dense shelter.

There is also a degree of contrast between the “hot” day and the “Bombola”, as the water imagery associated with its name carries connotations of coolness. The environment thus becomes inhospitable to the poor bird.

Line 2

Where fierce Mullengudgery’s smothering fires

Unlike the previous words, “Mullengudgery” alludes to a place in New South Wales, Australia. It is an inland agricultural area more than 6 hours from the shore, which is classed as hot and semi-arid, aligning with the previous tactile imagery of “hot”. Here, the area is personified as “fierce”, denoting its inhospitable environment, thereby suggesting that it enforces these conditions rather than merely hosting them.

This environmental danger is physically manifested through the presence of “smothering fires”, giving the heat of the day a secondary source. The “smothering” nature of these fires emphasises how suffocating and oppressive the heat and the smoke are, whilst also enacting a reversal. Usually, fires are the ones who are “smother[ed]” as they are deprived of oxygen. This reversal suggests that the fires themselves wield all of the power, as the wildlife, landscape, and the speaker are unable to triumph over the blazing heat.

Lines 3-4

Far from the breezes of Coolgardie
Burn ghastly and blue as the day expires;

Through another geographical allusion, the speaker further anchors the poem in Australia whilst expanding its scope. “Coolgardie” is another inland town in Western Australia, which is surrounded by a number of lakes and other bodies of water. The name of the location – including the word ‘cool’ – along with its association with cool bodies of water places it as an antithetical juxtaposition to “Mullengudgery”.

The speaker places emphasis on Mullengudgery being “Far from” Coolgardie, with the two towns being along an almost perfect horizontal line, yet roughly 30 hours away from one another by modern transport. During Twain’s stay in Australia in 1895, the commute would have been drastically longer.

Although “Coolgardie” is a town, it is also an Australian dialect term which refers to a food storage cupboard with wetted hessian walls. These units are designed to keep food cool, providing further contrast to the heat imagery associated with Mullengudgery.

These “breezes” are immediately contrasted in the next line with the fires which rage in Mullengudgery. The plosive alliteration in “breezes”, “Burn”, and “blue” links the cool imagery with the heat, heightening the contrast. Notably, “blue” flames are the hottest, as they achieve complete combustion. Twain fuses this with the blue association of water imagery used throughout to underscore the intensity of the heat whilst heightening the contrast between Mullengudgery and Coolgardie.

Even as the day draws to an end, the heat remains: even night cannot offer respite from the oppressive warmth.

Line 5

And Murriwillumba complaineth in song

The speaker returns to nonsense words and animals in stanza two. “Murriwillumba” is another place in Australia (though with a slight spelling difference), but here the name is applied to an animal. In the Aboriginal languages, “Murriwillumba” means ‘place of many possums’, suggesting that the animal featured in this image is a possum itself.

This “Murriwillumba” is personified as singing, likely an allusion to the bushtail possum’s call, which can be long and features somewhat melodic changes. However, this “song” could also suggest that the possums’ complaints are voiced in a collective chorus, underscoring the shared struggle of enduring the heat.

The use of “complaineth” is a subtle parody of how Romantic poets, who were popular shortly before this poem’s authorship, would write about the places in notably more effusive terms than those used in this poem.

Lines 6-8

For the garlanded bowers of Woolloomooloo,
And the Ballarat Fly and the lone Wollongong
They dream of the gardens of Jamberoo;

In these lines, the possum’s desire to be elsewhere is characterised as a “dream” – they long for places which are by water, thus providing release from the oppressive heat of inland locations.

“Woolloomooloo” alludes to a valley outside of Sydney. Like many other place names included within the poem, there are Aboriginal associations with this place name, though they are less clearly defined. The most relevant meaning to this poem is from ‘Wallabahmullah’, meaning ‘young black kangaroo’. Thus, the “garlanded bowers” – shelters made from tree boughs – are placed both within the geographical location and suggest that the kangaroos reside within these “bowers”. As they are “garlanded”, denoting an abundance of leaves or flowers, they provide shade and respite from the sun.

Line 7 couples two place names which are used to refer to two separate animals. “Ballarat” is an Australian city, whose name means ‘resting place’; irony emerges when the assigned animal – a “Fly” – has a name which also functions as a verb, contradicting the ‘resting’ nature of the ‘resting place’. The achieved effect infuses the line with further nonsense.

The “Wollongong” is a creature whose assigned name is another city whose name simply denotes its proximity to the sea. Wollongong, Jamberoo, and Woolloomooloo are relatively close together, all positioned close to the shore. “Ballarat”, while not along the coast, does contain a large lake. Each one provides an escape from the heat.

Assonance in “Wollongong”, “Jamberoo“, and “Woolloomooloo” give these lines an upbeat, airy feel which reflects their exemption from the oppressive, “smothering” heat of Mullengudgery.

Lines 9-11

The wallabi sighs for the Murrubidgee,
For the velvety sod of the Munno Parah,
Where the waters of healing from Muloowurtie

Line 9 contains two nouns which are presented with alternative spellings to the actual names. “Wallabi” here refers to ‘wallaby’, giving readers the first recognisable animal in the poem while continuing the nonsense nature of the text. “Murrubidgee” alludes to the ‘Murrumbidgee River’, positioning another body of water as respite for a desperately hot animal.

The wallaby expresses its longing through a “sigh”, giving it an unmistakably human quality whilst emphasising the desire behind this longing. Next, it dreams of “velvety sod”, metaphorically describing the tactile imagery of grass as soft and cool. This emphasises the rich, life-giving soil, further contrasting with the fiery scene. This grass is specifically tied to “the Munno Parah”, a location not too far from the coast. Its name means ‘golden wattle creek’, adding to the wealth of water imagery.

“Munno Parah”, in both the wallaby’s and the speaker’s eyes, hosts “healing” waters, which can metaphorically refer to the renewing and revitalising touch of the water on a hot day. This water comes from the small, rural coastal town of “Muloowurtie”, which is now known as ‘Pine Point’. Its name means ‘rat burrow’, continuing the animal imagery used throughout the poem.

These “waters of healing” are another way for the speaker to mock the language of Romantic poetry. Their “healing” quality directly juxtaposes the destructive capabilities of the fire in stanza one. The speaker exaggerates these descriptions through hyperbole to paint a landscape made up of irreconcilable extremes.

Line 12

Flow dim in the gloaming by Yaranyackah;

These “waters of healing” are given a darkness which further contrasts with the bright, ferocious light of the fire and heat. Unlike where the heat raged on as the “day expires”, here, dusk (“gloaming”) is characterised by a cool, calm, and peaceful flowing of revitalising water.

Lines 13-16

The Koppio sorrows for lost Wolloway,
And sigheth in secret for Murrurundi,
The Whangeroo wombat lamenteth the day
That made him an exile from Jerrilderie;

Unusually named animals continue to be anthropomorphised to illustrate their unhappiness in the heat. The “Koppio” – an Aboriginal word meaning ‘water’ – has a desire for refuge so extreme that its reaction is described as “sorrows”. Once again, the speaker’s language exaggerates the language associated with Romantic poets, with phrases like “sorrows for lost” and the alliterative “sigheth in secret” giving the emotional depth of a hero in a Romantic poem to an animal.

Alliteration and assonance in “Whangeroo wombat” preserve the nonsensical tone, even as it defines animal life more clearly. This nonsensical phrase is set against more Romantic language – “lamenteth the day” – to heighten the contrast and thereby increase the ridicule extended to this type of writing.

The wombat is given more dimension and personification than the other animals, as his desire for water is characterised as regret. His “exile from Jerrilderie” – a town which hosts Lake Jerrilderie and the Billabong Creek – means that he no longer has access to these methods of cooling off. This “exile” is never given any further explanation, heightening the humorous and nonsensical nature of the poem.

Lines 17-19

The Teawamute Tumut from Wirrega’s glade,
The Nangkita swallow, the Wallaroo swan,
They long for the peace of the Timaru shade

Stanza five hosts an asyndetic list of nonsensical animals, whose accumulation suggests the complete and far-spread reach of the oppressive heat. Tricolon and anaphora are used to heighten this sense of accumulation, underscoring how innate the desire to attain the “Timaru shade” is.

The “swallow” and the “swan” are birds that frequently feature in Romantic poetry, but here their names have Aboriginal words added to them to make them sound more unusual – the everyday matched with the unfamiliar. “Nangkita” means ‘place of many small frogs’, blending imagery of two unusually matched animals. This is repeated in “Wallaroo swan”, as these are two distinct animals that are entirely unlike one another, but their identities become fused here. While this heightens the nonsense nature of the poem, it also illustrates the singular desire, and therefore identity, of every animal in Australia.

On the other hand, the alliterative “Teawamute Tumut” combines two place names with alternative meanings, not clearly denoting any animal. “Teawamute” means ‘the river cut short’ (denoting that the body of water was no longer navigable past this point), while “Tumut” means ‘a quiet resting place by the river’.

These Australian animals are given a desire to escape the heat, which is far more extreme than the others. While every other animal has longed for a different region within Australia which is close to a body of water, these three animals only see respite in a different country. Their desire to leave is thus inflated, as they “long for […] Timaru shade”. “Timaru” alludes to a city in New Zealand, whose name literally means ‘shady’. As such, the phrase “Timaru shade” or ‘shady shade’ uses polyptoton to emphasise how strong and extreme this desire for shade is.

Line 20

And thy balmy soft airs, O sweet Mittagong!

The Romantic language continues in the final line of the stanza with the description of “balmy soft airs,” once again showing a desire for a more pleasant climate, and describing this place as “sweet” shows the longing that they have for it. The mock-solemn style of the reverence that the speaker expresses adds to the satirical feeling of the poem.

This mocking of Romanticism finds its strongest moment in the exclamation “O”, as the speaker addresses Mittagong as a personified force through apostrophe.

Lines 21-22

The Kooringa buffalo pants in the sun,
The Kondoparinga lies gaping for breath,

In stanza six, the imagery, tone, and intensity change. Depictions of animals longing for cooler places associated with water give way to bleak scenes of them struggling to survive the heat. Although the speaker has been exaggerating the heat throughout the poem, its real implications become clear in this stanza.

Another asyndetic list making use of anaphora appears, though the imagery in these lines is far bleaker. “Kooringa” is another place name which means ‘in the circle’ or ‘the locality of the she-oak’, which is a tree native to Australia. The latter denotes shade, yet the buffalo “pants in the sun” as it is exposed to direct heat.

During Twain’s time, “Kondoparinga” was thought to mean ‘long winding water’, providing a variation on the reprieve from the heat associated with “Kooringa”. Here, the word is used to identify a non-specific animal, continuing the nonsense even in these grim scenes. The animal is robbed of air as the heat stifles the area. Suddenly, the “smothering” nature of the fires takes effect.

Lines 23-24

The Kongorong Camaum to the shadow has won,
But the Goomeroo sinks in the slumber of death;

“Kongorong” is another place name which means ‘place of swans’, though the second noun – “Camaum” – appears to have no discernible meaning. This is the only creature who seems able to escape the sun through “shadow”, which is perhaps owed to the swan’s water habitat. Yet, despite this animal’s relative safety, the speaker does not underestimate the suffering it has endured. Its survival in the shade is “won”, underscoring the difficulty in overcoming the heat.

This hard-won victory is juxtaposed with an apparent loss of the “Goomeroo”, another name which appears to have no meaning. Slowly, it has succumbed to the heat and died, which is conveyed through the euphemism “the slumber of death”. Its transition into the afterlife is shown as a relief in itself as a “slumber”, as the animal can finally escape the heat. The sibilance of “sinks” and “slumber” audibly mimics the running of water, underscoring that death is a kindness for this poor animal.

However, this euphemism for death is another avenue of mocking Romanticism. This becomes clearest through the contrast of the nonsensical “Goomeroo” and the seriousness of death.

The names of the animals have become more complex to pronounce, which suggests the difficulty that the animals are having in moving around. This can be seen in the dense clustering of guttural consonance: “Kooringa”, “Kondoparinga”, “gaping”, “Kongorong Camaum”, and “Goomeroo”.

Lines 25-28

In the weltering hell of the Moorooroo plain
The Yatala Wangary withers and dies,
And the Worrow Wanilla, demented with pain,
To the Woolgoolga woodlands despairingly flies;

The “weltering hell” sounds like a Biblical inferno, using hyperbole to show how terrible this heat is for the animals on the plain. “Yatala” is another place name whose meaning is associated with water, while “Wangary” is associated with crows. This image of the “Yatala Wangary” thus becomes ironic, as the carrion bird associated with death dies itself under the intensity of the heat.

“Wanilla” is another place name associated with water that is applied instead to an animal. The running alliteration of “weltering”, “Wangary withers”, “Worrow Wanilla”, and “Woolgoolga woodlands” keeps the upbeat and nonsensical tone, which contrasts starkly with the death and torture of the animals. This is a serious scene as life flees before this apocalyptic heat, but it becomes absurd with the speaker’s use of language.

The “Wanilla” is “demented with pain”, pushed beyond its limits by the sheer agony of enduring the heat. On instinct, it flees to a combination of the two refuges from the heat acknowledged throughout the poem. “Woolgoolga” is another coastal town whose waters offer respite, and its “woodlands” offer shade.

It is worth noting that for every animal given a place name, the speaker is also illustrating that these towns suffer from the heat as well. The struggle thus becomes shared by plant life, wildlife, and human life.

Lines 29-30

Sweet Nangwarry’s desolate, Coonamble wails,
And Tungkillo Kuito in sables is drest,

In a subtle departure from the previous place names, “Nangwarry” is an Aboriginal place name meaning ‘path to the cave’. The ‘cave’ here still offers shelter from the sun, but does not align with the previous water imagery. Yet, despite the sheltering nature of this location, it is “desolate” and therefore unable to offer true refuge. Even these places of respite have been destroyed by the heat.

“Coonamble” is another Aboriginal place name meaning ‘cattle dung’, therefore likely identifying this animal as a bull or cow. Likewise, “Tungkillo” means ‘ghost moth grubs’, while “Kuito” is a place not in Australia, but Angola. Twain continues to infuse meaning into the unfamiliar words whilst guiding the poem further into the realm of nonsense.

Here, the speaker puns on “sables”, as this can refer to both the animal and the black clothes worn during mourning. Suddenly, the ghost moth grubs are personified as mourners who lament the deaths of their fellow creatures during the unbearable heat. These black clothes are unlike the grubs’ cocoons, which are gold in colour. Thus, the dark colour imagery reflects the aftermath of the fire, illustrating how desolate the land has become. One place is desolate, one place is wailing in sorrow, and another place is scorched black.

Lines 31-32

For the Whangerei winds fall asleep in the sails
And the Booleroo life-breeze is dead in the west.

Once again, the poem’s scope is extended beyond Australia. “Whangerei” alludes to ‘Whangarei’ in New Zealand, the name of which means ‘to gather’. As the first stanza revealed that there were no “breezes” near the fires, the speaker and the animals turn to New Zealand for carried currents of coolness. Yet, these breezes ‘gather’ and ‘fall asleep’ in the sails of boats. This use of personification and pathetic fallacy underscores the relaxing touch of the breeze, but shows that it falls victim to its own influence. It never reaches the shores of Australia, leaving the creatures to suffer without reprieve.

“Booleroo” is a town within a mountain range, whose name means ‘plenty’. Despite the life-giving, nurturing connotation of this place name, the metaphorical “life-breeze” to which it is assigned is personified as “dead”, unable to break the overbearing heat. Its absence ensures that everything else will die alongside it.

Two separate winds are personified in this stanza – one sleeping, the other “dead”. This serves to emphasise the absolute stillness of the Australian land as the sun beats down and fires rage uninterrupted.

Lines 33-37

Mypongo, Kapunda, O slumber no more
Yankalilla, Parawirra, be warned
There’s death in the air!
Killanoola, wherefore
Shall the prayer of Penola be scorned?

“Mypongo” is another nonsense word, whilst the other unfamiliar words which follow are place names with Aboriginal meanings. “Kapunda” and “Parawirra” are associated with water, while “Killanoola” and “Penola” refer to plant life which provides sustenance and shelter from the heat.

The speaker addresses these locations through apostrophe, once again mocking Romantic writers through the hyperbolic language and exclamation “O”. The absence of the “life-breeze” renders the “air” full of “death”, as it carries the heat and becomes difficult to breathe.

A rhetorical question rounds off this section of the poem, as the speaker questions whether the prayer of “Penola” for life will be “scorned” as death runs rampant.

The tone here shifts, becoming almost Biblical and prophetic. The first two towns that are mentioned are warned to “slumber no more,” showing that they have been complacent, but now they can no longer afford to do this. The warning here could be that the fire is on its way to them, and they cannot wait for it.

Lines 38-41

Cootamundra, and Takee, and Wakatipu,
Toowoomba, Kaikoura are lost
From Onkaparinga to far Oamaru
All burn in this hell’s holocaust!

Allusions accumulate in this stanza, as a number of place names are set side-by-side. “Cootamundra” and “Kaikoura” refer to sea creatures, while “Wakatipu”, “Toowoomba”, and “Onkaparinga” are associated with water imagery. Even these places are not safe from the growing heat as the breeze fails to disrupt the stifling atmosphere.

Notably, a number of these place names are from New Zealand, as the heat appears to become so large that it expands beyond Australia. “Oamaru” is one such location, whose name means ‘place of sheltered fire’ – as New Zealand’s winds fail to blow, it too not only falls victim to the heat, but nurtures it as the fire is ‘sheltered’ from the elements which might douse it.

The heat is exaggerated with the alliterative description of “hell’s holocaust,” making it seem as though it is a Biblical inferno through hyperbole.

Lines 42-45

Paramatta and Binnum are gone to their rest
In the vale of Tapanni Taroom,
Kawakawa, Deniliquin – all that was best
In the earth are but graves and a tomb!

This stanza continues to list the places that have suffered and been lost to this extreme heat, with many of the location names – “Binnum”, “Taroom”, and “Kawakawa” – relating to plant life which has presumably perished in the heat.

The language used here mocks the overly sentimental elegiac poetry common amongst Romantics, with expressions such as “gone to their rest” and “In the earth are but graves and a tomb,” exaggerating the series of events and the resulting consequences.

However, while this poem’s tone is predominantly satirical, this stanza can also be read as a serious expression of the effects of the heat. Life was hard in Australia at this time, and the heat would have been deadly to a number of people. The towns themselves were often abandoned as a result, which explains what the speaker means when they describe the towns metaphorically and hyperbolically becoming graves and a tomb. Nothing can grow there, and only the dead remain.

Lines 46-49

Narrandera mourns, Cameron answers not
When the roll of the scathless we cry
Tongariro, Goondiwindi, Woolundunga, the spot
Is mute and forlorn where ye lie.

The mock-epic style of the poem continues to the end, as the speaker reflects on the damage that has been done, speaking about it in a mournful tone. An asyndetic list catalogues the damage of the heat and fires, creating a sense of accumulation to underscore the totality of the destruction.

As the nonsensically named animals continue in the list, two of their names – “Narrandera” and “Goondiwindi” – identify the actual animals: a lizard and a bird. On the other hand, “Tongariro” refers to a wind, which dies alongside the animals, towns, and plant life. Graves enter the imagery once again, as these casualties are given metaphorical resting places.

One of the towns “mourns”, while another does not answer, functioning as another euphemism for death. It sounds as though Australia has been the grounds of an epic battle with mass casualties.

Most places are not unscathed, or “scathless,” and therefore are not named in the list of casualties. The personifying metaphor of them being “mute and forlorn where ye lie” further emphasises the idea of these towns as being killed in battle, lying as silent victims that the speaker continues to mourn.

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