Henry Lawson
In the Days When the World Was Wide, and Other Verses
Published by Good Press, 2022
goodpress@okpublishing.info
EAN 4057664627438
Table of Contents
PREFACE
To J. F. Archibald
To an Old Mate
CONTENTS WITH FIRST LINES
IN THE DAYS WHEN THE WORLD WAS WIDE AND OTHER VERSES
In the Days When the World was Wide
Faces in the Street
The Roaring Days
'For'ard'
The Drover's Sweetheart
Out Back
The Free-Selector's Daughter
'Sez You'
Andy's Gone With Cattle
Jack Dunn of Nevertire
Trooper Campbell
The Sliprails and the Spur
Past Carin'
The Glass on the Bar
The Shanty on the Rise
The Vagabond
Sweeney
Middleton's Rouseabout
The Ballad of the Drover
Taking His Chance
When the 'Army' Prays for Watty
The Wreck of the 'Derry Castle'
Ben Duggan
The Star of Australasia
The Great Grey Plain
The Song of Old Joe Swallow
Corny Bill
Cherry-Tree Inn
Up the Country
Knocked Up
The Blue Mountains
The City Bushman
Eurunderee
Mount Bukaroo
The Fire at Ross's Farm
The Teams
Cameron's Heart
The Shame of Going Back
Since Then
Peter Anderson and Co.
When the Children Come Home
Dan, the Wreck
A Prouder Man Than You
The Song and the Sigh
The Cambaroora Star
After All
Marshall's Mate
The Poets of the Tomb
Australian Bards and Bush Reviewers
The Ghost
The End.
[From the July, 1909 section of Advertisements.]
WHEN THE WORLD WAS WIDE,
WHILE THE BILLY BOILS.
PREFACE
Table of Contents
Most of the verses contained in this volume were first published in the Sydney 'Bulletin'; others in the Brisbane 'Boomerang', Sydney 'Freeman's Journal', 'Town and Country Journal', 'Worker', and 'New Zealand Mail', whose editors and proprietors I desire to thank for past kindnesses and for present courtesy in granting me the right of reproduction in book form.
'In the Days When the World was Wide' was written in Maoriland and some of the other verses in Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia.
The dates of original publication are given in the Table of Contents. Those undated are now printed for the first time.
HENRY LAWSON.
To J. F. Archibald
Table of Contents
To an Old Mate
Table of Contents
Old Mate! In the gusty old weather,
When our hopes and our troubles were new,
In the years spent in wearing out leather,
I found you unselfish and true —
I have gathered these verses together
For the sake of our friendship and you.
You may think for awhile, and with reason,
Though still with a kindly regret,
That I've left it full late in the season
To prove I remember you yet;
But you'll never judge me by their treason
Who profit by friends — and forget.
I remember, Old Man, I remember —
The tracks that we followed are clear —
The jovial last nights of December,
The solemn first days of the year,
Long tramps through the clearings and timber,
Short partings on platform and pier.
I can still feel the spirit that bore us,
And often the old stars will shine —
I remember the last spree in chorus
For the sake of that other Lang Syne,
When the tracks lay divided before us,
Your path through the future and mine.
Through the frost-wind that cut like whip-lashes,
Through the ever-blind haze of the drought —
And in fancy at times by the flashes
Of light in the darkness of doubt —
I have followed the tent poles and ashes
Of camps that we moved further out.
You will find in these pages a trace of
That side of our past which was bright,
And recognise sometimes the face of
A friend who has dropped out of sight —
I send them along in the place of
The letters I promised to write.
CONTENTS WITH FIRST LINES
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To an Old Mate
Old Mate! In the gusty old weather,
In the Days When the World was Wide
The world is narrow and ways are short, and our lives are dull and slow,
[Dec. — 1894]
Faces in the Street
They lie, the men who tell us in a loud decisive tone
[July — 1888]
The Roaring Days
The night too quickly passes
[Dec. — 1889]
'For'ard'
It is stuffy in the steerage where the second-classers sleep,
[Dec. — 1893]
The Drover's Sweetheart
An hour before the sun goes down
[June — 1891]
Out Back
The old year went, and the new returned,
in the withering weeks of drought,
[Sept. — 1893]
The Free-Selector's Daughter
I met her on the Lachlan Side —
[May — 1891]
'Sez You'
When the heavy sand is yielding backward from your blistered feet,
[Mar. — 1894]
Andy's Gone With Cattle
Our Andy's gone to battle now
[Oct. — 1888]
Jack Dunn of Nevertire
It chanced upon the very day we'd got the shearing done,
[Aug. — 1892]
Trooper Campbell
One day old Trooper Campbell
[Apr. — 1891]
The Sliprails and the Spur
The colours of the setting sun
[July — 1899]
Past Carin'
Now up and down the siding brown
[Aug. — 1899]
The Glass on the Bar
Three bushmen one morning rode up to an inn,
[Apr. — 1890]
The Shanty on the Rise
When the caravans of wool-teams climbed the ranges from the West,
[Dec. — 1891]
The Vagabond
White handkerchiefs wave from the short black pier
[Aug. — 1895]
Sweeney
It was somewhere in September, and the sun was going down,
[Dec. — 1893]
Middleton's Rouseabout
Tall and freckled and sandy,
[Mar. — 1890]
The Ballad of the Drover
Across the stony ridges,
[Mar. — 1889]
Taking His Chance
They stood by the door of the Inn on the Rise;
[June — 1892]
When the 'Army' Prays for Watty
When the kindly hours of darkness, save for light of moon and star,
[May — 1893]
The Wreck of the 'Derry Castle'
Day of ending for beginnings!
[Dec. — 1887]
Ben Duggan
Jack Denver died on Talbragar when Christmas Eve began,
[Dec. — 1891]
The Star of Australasia
We boast no more of our bloodless flag, that rose from a nation's slime;
The Great Grey Plain
Out West, where the stars are brightest,
[Sept. — 1893]
The Song of Old Joe Swallow
When I was up the country in the rough and early days,
[May — 1890]
Corny Bill
His old clay pipe stuck in his mouth,
[May — 1892]
Cherry-Tree Inn
The rafters are open to sun, moon, and star,
Up the Country
I am back from up the country — very sorry that I went —
[July — 1892]
Knocked Up
I'm lyin' on the barren ground that's baked and cracked with drought,
[Aug. — 1893]
The Blue Mountains
Above the ashes straight and tall,
[Dec. — 1888]
The City Bushman
It was pleasant up the country, City Bushman, where you went,
[Aug. — 1892]
Eurunderee
There are scenes in the distance where beauty is not,
[Aug. — 1891]
Mount Bukaroo
Only one old post is standing —
[Dec. — 1889]
The Fire at Ross's Farm
The squatter saw his pastures wide
[Apr. — 1891]
The Teams
A cloud of dust on the long white road,
[Dec. — 1889]
Cameron's Heart
The diggings were just in their glory when Alister Cameron came,
[July — 1891]
The Shame of Going Back
When you've come to make a fortune and you haven't made your salt,
[Oct. — 1891]
Since Then
I met Jack Ellis in town to-day —
[Nov. — 1895]
Peter Anderson and Co.
He had offices in Sydney, not so many years ago,
[Aug. — 1895]
When the Children Come Home
On a lonely selection far out in the West
[Dec. — 1890]
Dan, the Wreck
Tall, and stout, and solid-looking,
A Prouder Man Than You
If you fancy that your people came of better stock than mine,
[June — 1892]
The Song and the Sigh
The creek went down with a broken song,
[Mar. — 1889]
The Cambaroora Star
So you're writing for a paper? Well, it's nothing very new
[Dec. — 1891]
After All
The brooding ghosts of Australian night
have gone from the bush and town;
Marshall's Mate
You almost heard the surface bake, and saw the gum-leaves turn —
[July — 1895]
The Poets of the Tomb
The world has had enough of bards who wish that they were dead,
[Oct. — 1892]
Australian Bards and Bush Reviewers
While you use your best endeavour to immortalise in verse
[Feb. — 1894]
The Ghost
Down the street as I was drifting with the city's human tide,
[Aug. — 1889]
IN THE DAYS WHEN THE WORLD WAS WIDE AND OTHER VERSES
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In the Days When the World was Wide
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The world is narrow and ways are short, and our lives are dull and slow,
For little is new where the crowds resort, and less where the wanderers go;
Greater, or smaller, the same old things we see by the dull road-side —
And tired of all is the spirit that sings
of the days when the world was wide.
When the North was hale in the march of Time,
and the South and the West were new,
And the gorgeous East was a pantomime, as it seemed in our boyhood's view;
When Spain was first on the waves of change,
and proud in the ranks of pride,
And all was wonderful, new and strange in the days when the world was wide.
Then a man could fight if his heart were bold,
and win if his faith were true —
Were it love, or honour, or power, or gold, or all that our hearts pursue;
Could live to the world for the family name, or die for the family pride,
Could fly from sorrow, and wrong, and shame
in the days when the world was wide.
They sailed away in the ships that sailed ere science controlled the main,
When the strong, brave heart of a man prevailed
as 'twill never prevail again;
They knew not whither, nor much they cared —
let Fate or the winds decide —
The worst of the Great Unknown they dared
in the days when the world was wide.
They raised new stars on the silent sea that filled their hearts with awe;
They came to many a strange countree and marvellous sights they saw.
The villagers gaped at the tales they told,
and old eyes glistened with pride —
When barbarous cities were paved with gold
in the days when the world was wide.
'Twas honest metal and honest wood, in the days of the Outward Bound,
When men were gallant and ships were good — roaming the wide world round.
The gods could envy a leader then when 'Follow me, lads!' he cried —
They faced each other and fought like men
in the days when the world was wide.
They tried to live as a freeman should — they were happier men than we,
In the glorious days of wine and blood, when Liberty crossed the sea;
'Twas a comrade true or a foeman then, and a trusty sword well tried —
They faced each other and fought like men
in the days when the world was wide.
The good ship bound for the Southern seas when the beacon was Ballarat,
With a 'Ship ahoy!' on the freshening breeze,
'Where bound?' and 'What ship's that?' —
The emigrant train to New Mexico — the rush to the Lachlan Side —
Ah! faint is the echo of Westward Ho!
from the days when the world was wide.
South, East, and West in advance of Time — and, ay! in advance of Thought
Those brave men rose to a height sublime — and is it for this they fought?
And is it for this damned life we praise the god-like spirit that died
At Eureka Stockade in the Roaring Days
with the days when the world was wide?
We fight like women, and feel as much; the thoughts of our hearts we guard;
Where scarcely the scorn of a god could touch,
the sneer of a sneak hits hard;
The treacherous tongue and cowardly pen, the weapons of curs, decide —
They faced each other and fought like men
in the days when the world was wide.
Think of it all — of the life that is! Study your friends and foes!
Study the past! And answer this: 'Are these times better than those?'
The life-long quarrel, the paltry spite, the sting of your poisoned pride!
No matter who fell it were better to fight
as they did when the world was wide.
Boast as you will of your mateship now — crippled and mean and sly —
The lines of suspicion on friendship's brow
were traced since the days gone by.
There was room in the long, free lines of the van
to fight for it side by side —
There was beating-room for the heart of a man
in the days when the world was wide.
. . . . .
With its dull, brown days of a-shilling-an-hour
the dreary year drags round:
Is this the result of Old England's power?
— the bourne of the Outward Bound?
Is this the sequel of Westward Ho! — of the days of Whate'er Betide?
The heart of the rebel makes answer 'No!
We'll fight till the world grows wide!'
The world shall yet be a wider world — for the tokens are manifest;
East and North shall the wrongs be hurled that followed us South and West.
The march of Freedom is North by the Dawn! Follow, whate'er betide!
Sons of the Exiles, march! March on! March till the world grows wide!
Faces in the Street
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