Henry Lawson

Ben Boyd’s Tower

Ben Boyd’s Tower - meaning Summary

Reunion Beneath a Watchful Tower

The poem treats Ben Boyd’s Tower as a coastal sentinel and symbol of longing, watching for lovers and a returning wanderer. Refrains emphasize uncertain time yet certain reunion. Between mystic moonlit dances and local, earthbound vignettes—a withered woman, ballroom flirtation, a bar-room quarrel—the tower links private longing with communal life. The mood shifts between romantic expectation and everyday detail, making the tower a focal point for memory and return.

Read Complete Analyses

Ben Boyd’s Tower is watching Watching o’er the sea; Ben Boyd’s Tower is waiting For her and me. We do not know the day, We do not know the hour, But we know that we shall meet By Ben Boyd’s Tower. Moonlight peoples Boyd Tower, Mystic are its walls; Lightly dance the lovers In its haunted halls. Ben Boyd’s Tower is watching Watching o’er the foam; Ben Boyd’s Tower is waiting Till the Wanderer comes home. O! he lay above us High above the surf Finger-nails and toe-caps Digging in the turf. We do not know the day, We do not know the hour, But Two and Two shall meet again By Ben Boyd’s Tower. There’s an ancient dame in Eden Basket on her arm And she goes down the Main Street From the old, old farm. Hood drawn on her forehead Withered dame and grey She never looks on Boyd Tower Out across the Bay. Bright eyes in the ballroom, Coquetting with two, Just for love of mischief, As a girl will do. A quarrel in the bar-room All within the hour And four men rode from Boyd Town To Ben Boyd’s Tower.

default user
PoetryVerse just now

Feel free to be first to leave comment.

8/2200 - 0