Explore "When Brother Peetree Prayed" by Edward Dyson on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
'Twas a sleepy little chapel by a wattled hill erected, / Where the storms were always muffled, and an / atmosphere of peace / Hung about beneath the gum-trees, and the garden / was respected / By the goats from Billybunga and the washer- / woman's geese. / In the week-days it was sacred to my young / imagination / From its walls there oozed a sentiment of reverence / profound; / And on Sabbath morns the murmuring of the childish / congregation / Seemed to spread a benediction in the bush land / far around. / But when Brother Peetree prayed all the parrots / flew dismayed, / And the hill shook to its centre, and the trees and / fences swayed; / And we youngsters heard the rumble of the Day of / Judgment there, / When the pious superintendent wrestled manfully / in prayer.
They were horny-handed Methodists, and men of / scanty knowledge, / Who controlled that 'little corner of the vine- / yard' by the pound; / Their theology was not the kind that's warranted / at college, / But their faith was most abundant, and their / gospel always sound. / Brother Peetree was a miner at the Band of Hope. / His leisure / He employed in 'sticking porkers' for his neigh- / bours, and his skill / Was a theme of admiration; but his soul's sublimest / pleasure / Was to speak a prayer on Sunday in the chapel / 'neath the hill. / Froze the marrow in our bones at the sound of / hollow groans, / And the shrieks of moral anguish, and the awful / thunder tones; / And we saw the Hell-fire burning, and we smelt it / in the air, / When dear Brother Peetree struggled with the Lord / of Hosts in prayer.