A collection of short poems by JosephWilliamDuke

Here are some short poems my Grandfather wrote whilst travaling in India.

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AWAY from the torture and worries of life's wreck, I compelled myself to leave on a long trek Bidding "Good-bye" to Friends and Kins Leaving down-hearted but did my duty like a fin.

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AWAY to the railway station where all was a din
Silently sat I in a compartment like a jim and at last the departure bell did ring We are off! then the wind did sing.

*jim = jim crow.

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EVERYTHING had passed in such a hurried by
Which then made me think and sigh,
Of true friends and kins who probably did cry After my departure for the Bye and Bye.

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NIGHT was passing, with my thoughts of old and new
While the train rolled through, the darkness of the hue,
The following morning, and the time due of my arrival with the strange and new.

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NOW away in Kodama on the hills I speculated on grocer's stores and got my bills From the settlers who were on the hills
Who honestly paid to me all their due bills.

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THE hills, and the virgin forests scenery were simply grand
With the wild life of animals and birds at hand And it's cold climate was invigorating like the English Strand
So the settlers all lived there in a large band.

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EARLY in the morning with plough and sickle
Old men trodded away to the hill-side fields like the old wittle
To sow the seeds and grow their food which was, just then a little
But the hard work made the settler's all brittle.

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ON Sundays in the Colony
All the settler's congeregated and made a harmony
To God on high for his fidelity
In one of the settler's house, given for the Solemn Assembly.

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AFTER a couple years of hand-ships
The settler's mingled themselves into friend-ships
With the true and sincerity-ship
Of the Dewan of Salur Estate's Master-ship.

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AWAY then did I go to Town
To bring my three son's to a place renown
For their holidays and joy I found
Which was on the colony's ground.

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BUT on my return, with my son's there
I witnessed a sight
Of a fever epidemic which set the settler's in a fright
But the good old Doctor in his plight
Did his very best for the self sacrificed sights.

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BUT now to my sorrow and fate
Of the fever epidemic of late
The youngest son who contracted the wretched epidemic of hate
*Had ceased his Life,and there the little Soul sleeps,within the cemetry gates.

*(Richard Duke died 10/1/1935 aged 7 years Salur)

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THE other two son's depressed with sorrow were returned back to school Sad of the sudden call of their dear brother so soon
But God in His Mercy callest those soon
Whom, He lovest best, away from this awful gloom.

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THEN after a few months more
There was a colony on more
The settlers did not want any more
And the result, was that we all had made up our minds to go.
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