s: But there wasn't a drop in the whisky jar --


s: The shearers sat in the firelight, hearty and hale and strong,


s: After the hard day's shearing, passing the joke along:


s: And men from the Snowy River, the land of the frozen snow;


s: He lingered over them fondly, because they recalled to mind


s: Most of the names are easy -- short for a man to say.


s: 'You've heard of Mungrybambone and the Gundabluey pine,


s: But the rest of the shearers stopped him:


s: On the outer Barcoo where the churches are few,


s: On a road never cross'd 'cept by folk that are lost,


s: Now this Mike was the dad of a ten year old lad,


s: Plump, healthy, and stoutly conditioned;


s: He was strong as the best, but poor Mike had no rest


s: For the youngster had never been christened.


s: And his wife used to cry, 'If the darlin' should die


s: But by luck he survived till a preacher arrived,


s: Now the artful young rogue, while they held their collogue,


s: With his ear to the keyhole was listenin',


s: And he muttered in fright, while his features turned white,


s: 'What the divil and all is this christenin'?'


s: He was none of your dolts, he had seen them brand colts,


s: And it seemed to his small understanding,


s: If the man in the frock made him one of the flock,


s: It must mean something very like branding.


s: So away with a rush he set off for the bush,


s: While the tears in his eyelids they glistened --


s: ''Tis outrageous,' says he, 'to brand youngsters like me,


s: I'll be dashed if I'll stop to be christened!'


s: Like a young native dog he ran into a log,


s: Never heeding the 'praste' cried aloud in his haste,


s: 'Come out and be christened, you divil!'


s: But he lay there as snug as a bug in a rug,


s: And his parents in vain might reprove him,


s: Till his reverence spoke (he was fond of a joke)


s: 'I've a notion,' says he, 'that'll move him.'


s: 'Poke a stick up the log, give the spalpeen a prog;


s: Poke him aisy -- don't hurt him or maim him,


s: 'Tis not long that he'll stand, I've the water at hand,


s: As he rushes out this end I'll name him.


s: 'Here he comes, and for shame! ye've forgotten the name --


s: Here the youngster ran out, and the priest gave a shout --


s: 'Take your chance, anyhow, wid 'Maginnis'!'


s: As the howling young cub ran away to the scrub


s: Where he knew that pursuit would be risky,


s: The priest, as he fled, flung a flask at his head


s: That was labelled '_MAGINNIS'S WHISKY_'!


s: And Maginnis Magee has been made a J.P.,


s: And the one thing he hates more than sin is


s: To be asked by the folk, who have heard of the joke,


s: How he came to be christened 'Maginnis'!


s: 'Aye,' said the boozer, 'I tell you it's true, sir,


s: I once was a punter with plenty of pelf,


s: But gone is my glory, I'll tell you the story


s: How I stiffened my horse and got stiffened myself.


s: ''Twas a mare called the Cracker, I came down to back her,


s: But found she was favourite all of a rush,


s: The folk just did pour on to lay six to four on,


s: And several bookies were killed in the crush.


s: 'It seems old Tomato was stiff, though a starter;


s: They reckoned him fit for the Caulfield to keep.


s: The Bloke and the Donah were scratched by their owner,


s: He only was offered three-fourths of the sweep.


s: 'We knew Salamander was slow as a gander,


s: The mare could have beat him the length of the straight,


s: And old Manumission was out of condition,


s: And most of the others were running off weight.


s: 'No doubt someone 'blew it', for everyone knew it,


s: The bets were all gone, and I muttered in spite


s: 'If I can't get a copper, by Jingo, I'll stop her,


s: Let the public fall in, it will serve the brutes right.'


s: 'I said to the jockey, 'Now, listen, my cocky,


s: You watch as you're cantering down by the stand,


s: I'll wait where that toff is and give you the office,


s: You're only to win if I lift up my hand.'


s: 'I then tried to back her -- 'What price is the Cracker?'


s: 'Our books are all full, sir,' each bookie did swear;


s: My mind, then, I made up, my fortune I played up


s: I bet every shilling against my own mare.


s: 'I strolled to the gateway, the mare in the straightway


s: Was shifting and dancing, and pawing the ground,


s: The boy saw me enter and wheeled for his canter,


s: When a darned great mosquito came buzzing around.


s: 'They breed 'em at Hexham, it's risky to vex 'em,


s: They suck a man dry at a sitting, no doubt,


s: But just as the mare passed, he fluttered my hair past,


s: I lifted my hand, and I flattened him out.


s: 'I was stunned when they started, the mare simply darted


s: Away to the front when the flag was let fall,


s: For none there could match her, and none tried to catch her --


s: She finished a furlong in front of them all.


s: 'You bet that I went for the boy, whom I sent for


s: The moment he weighed and came out of the stand --


s: 'Who paid you to win it?  Come, own up this minute.'


s: 'Lord love yer,' said he, 'why you lifted your hand.'


s: ''Twas true, by St. Peter, that cursed 'muskeeter'


s: Had broke me so broke that I hadn't a brown,


s: And you'll find the best course is when dealing with horses


s: To win when you're able, and _KEEP YOUR HANDS DOWN_.


s: The land o' partridge, deer, and grouse,


s: 'Losh, man, that's grand,' MacFierce'un cried,


s: McThirst replied, 'Gude friend, in truth,


s: 'My bairns hae done the deed of shame --


s: As I pondered very weary o'er a volume long and dreary --


s: Of each township, town, and village in the radius of the Act.


s: And I learnt that Puckawidgee stands beside the Murrumbidgee,


s: And that Booleroi and Bumble get their letters twice a year,


s: Also that the post inspector, when he visited Collector,


s: Closed the office up instanter, and re-opened Dungalear.


s: But my languid mood forsook me, when I found a name that took me,


s: Just an N which stood for northward, and the rest was all unsaid.


s: Where the telegraph don't reach you nor the railways run to town.


s: And one's letters and exchanges come by chance across the ranges,


s: This is the place where they all were bred;


s: Now they are scattered and lost and dead,


s: Better it is that they ne'er came back --


s: Green is the grass on the well-worn track


s: Where are the children that throve and grew


s: Watching his cattle the long year through,


s: Watching them starve in the droughts and die.


s: One in the town where all cares are rife,


s: Weary with troubles that cramp and kill,


s: Fain would be done with the restless strife,


s: Fain would go back to the old bush life,


s: Out in the wastes of the trackless west,


s: Of his years and strength to the hopeless toil.


s: Rough is their grave, but they sleep as sound


s: Ne'er-do-well fellows are easily spared;


s: But the reckless living has left its stamp


s: In the deep drawn lines of that handsome face,


s: And a harder look in those eyes of blue:


s: But his wife was wise if his face she knew


s: By the time you were done with him, Jim Carew.


s: Works with them, toils with them, side by side;


s: As to his past -- well, his lips are shut.


s: 'Gentleman once,' say his mates with pride;


s: And the wildest Cornstalk can ne'er outdo


s: What should he live for?  A dull despair!


s: And he reigns as king with a drunken crew,


s: But he straightens up when he's asked to tell


s: Still lightens up in those eyes of blue --


s: We buried old Bob where the bloodwoods wave


s: We fashioned a cross on the old man's grave,


s: And in place of 'Died from effects of spree',


s: He would camp for days in the river-bed,


s: But he found the rails on that summer night


s: As we watched by turns in the flickering light


s: The breeze came in with the scent of pine,


s: When a change came on, and we saw the sign


s: But he spoke in a cultured voice and low --


s: But bury me out where the bloodwoods wave,


s: Just take and shovel me out of the grave


s: 'For I've always heard --' here his voice fell weak,


s: He gasped and struggled and tried to speak,


s: The drought came down on the field and flock,


s: Though the tortured moans of the starving stock


s: And we thought of the hint that the swagman gave


s: We shovelled the skeleton out of the grave


s: We dug where the cross and the grave posts were,


s: 'Twas a reef with never a fault nor baulk


s: THE LITERARY YEAR BOOK:  "The immediate success of this


s: SPECTATOR:  "These lines have the true lyrical cry in them.


s: about great rides, in which the lines gallop like the very hoofs


s: Mr. A. Patchett Martin, in LITERATURE (London):  "In my opinion,


s: and a dash of real tears in its composition."


s: GLASGOW HERALD:  "These ballads... are full of such go


s: that the mere reading of them make the blood tingle....


s: But there are other things in Mr. Paterson's book besides


s: mere racing and chasing, and each piece bears the mark


s: of special local knowledge, feeling, and colour.


s: The poet has also a note of pathos, which is always wholesome."


s: and capital subjects...  We turn to Mr. Paterson's roaring muse


s: and 'The City Bushman', included in this selection,


s: were two of Lawson's contributions to the debate.  Please note


s: When our hopes and our troubles were new,


s: In the years spent in wearing out leather,


s: You may think for awhile, and with reason,


s: That I've left it full late in the season


s: But you'll never judge me by their treason


s: The tracks that we followed are clear --


s: Long tramps through the clearings and timber,


s: I can still feel the spirit that bore us,


s: Through the frost-wind that cut like whip-lashes,


s: Through the ever-blind haze of the drought --


s: I have followed the tent poles and ashes


s: A friend who has dropped out of sight --


s: They lie, the men who tell us in a loud decisive tone


s: It is stuffy in the steerage where the second-classers sleep,


s: The old year went, and the new returned,


s: It chanced upon the very day we'd got the shearing done,


s: Three bushmen one morning rode up to an inn,


s: When the caravans of wool-teams climbed the ranges from the West,


s: White handkerchiefs wave from the short black pier


s: It was somewhere in September, and the sun was going down,


s: They stood by the door of the Inn on the Rise;


s: Jack Denver died on Talbragar when Christmas Eve began,


s: Out West, where the stars are brightest,


s: When I was up the country in the rough and early days,


s: The rafters are open to sun, moon, and star,


s: I am back from up the country -- very sorry that I went --


s: It was pleasant up the country, City Bushman, where you went,


s: There are scenes in the distance where beauty is not,


s: The diggings were just in their glory when Alister Cameron came,


s: He had offices in Sydney, not so many years ago,


s: On a lonely selection far out in the West


s: If you fancy that your people came of better stock than mine,


s: So you're writing for a paper?  Well, it's nothing very new


s: You almost heard the surface bake, and saw the gum-leaves turn --


s: The world has had enough of bards who wish that they were dead,


s: While you use your best endeavour to immortalise in verse


s: Down the street as I was drifting with the city's human tide,


s: When the North was hale in the march of Time,


s: Then a man could fight if his heart were bold,


s: They knew not whither, nor much they cared --


s: The worst of the Great Unknown they dared


s: When barbarous cities were paved with gold


s: 'Where bound?' and 'What ship's that?' --


s: There was room in the long, free lines of the van


s: There was beating-room for the heart of a man


s: With its dull, brown days of a-shilling-an-hour


s: Is this the result of Old England's power?


s: They lie, the men who tell us in a loud decisive tone


s: That want is here a stranger, and that misery's unknown;


s: For where the nearest suburb and the city proper meet


s: My window-sill is level with the faces in the street --


s: While I sorrow for the owners of those faces in the street.


s: And cause I have to sorrow, in a land so young and fair,


s: To see upon those faces stamped the marks of Want and Care;


s: I look in vain for traces of the fresh and fair and sweet


s: In sallow, sunken faces that are drifting through the street --


s: I can sorrow for the owners of the faces in the street.


s: In hours before the dawning dims the starlight in the sky


s: The wan and weary faces first begin to trickle by,


s: Increasing as the moments hurry on with morning feet,


s: Till like a pallid river flow the faces in the street --


s: Ah!  I sorrow for the owners of those faces in the street.


s: The human river dwindles when 'tis past the hour of eight,


s: Its waves go flowing faster in the fear of being late;


s: But slowly drag the moments, whilst beneath the dust and heat


s: The city grinds the owners of the faces in the street --


s: Oh!  I sorrow for the owners of the faces in the street.


s: And then the only faces till the sun is sinking down


s: Are those of outside toilers and the idlers of the town,


s: Save here and there a face that seems a stranger in the street,


s: Tells of the city's unemployed upon his weary beat --


s: Ah!  My heart aches for the owner of that sad face in the street.


s: And when the hours on lagging feet have slowly dragged away,


s: And sickly yellow gaslights rise to mock the going day,


s: Then flowing past my window like a tide in its retreat,


s: Again I see the pallid stream of faces in the street --


s: A dreadful, thankless trade is hers, that Woman of the Street.


s: But, ah! to dreader things than these our fair young city comes,


s: For in its heart are growing thick the filthy dens and slums,


s: Where human forms shall rot away in sties for swine unmeet,


s: And ghostly faces shall be seen unfit for any street --


s: In dens of vice and horror that are hidden from the street.


s: I wonder would the apathy of wealthy men endure


s: Were all their windows level with the faces of the Poor?


s: In the filthy lane and alley, and the cruel, heartless street.


s: I left the dreadful corner where the steps are never still,


s: And sought another window overlooking gorge and hill;


s: But when the night came dreary with the driving rain and sleet,


s: They haunted me -- the shadows of those faces in the street,


s: Once I cried:  'Oh, God Almighty! if Thy might doth still endure,


s: And, lo! with shops all shuttered I beheld a city's street,


s: And in the warning distance heard the tramp of many feet,


s: And soon I saw the army that was marching down the street.


s: Then, like a swollen river that has broken bank and wall,


s: The human flood came pouring with the red flags over all,


s: And kindled eyes all blazing bright with revolution's heat,


s: And flashing swords reflecting rigid faces in the street.


s: And the war-hymns and the cheering of the people in the street.


s: And so it must be while the world goes rolling round its course,


s: Shall its sad people miss awhile the terrors of the street --


s: In that pent track of living death -- the city's cruel street.


s: It is stuffy in the steerage where the second-classers sleep,


s: There is sheets 'n' best of tucker for the first-salooners, aft.


s: Our beef is just like scrapin's from the inside of a hide,


s: Juicy grills an' toast 'n' cutlets -- tucker a-lor-frongsy, aft.


s: They feed our women sep'rate, an' they make a blessed fuss,


s: Just as if they couldn't trust 'em for to eat along with us!


s: 'I'll assist you to an orange' -- 'Kindly pass the sugar', aft.


s: We are shabby, rough, 'n' dirty, an' our feelin's out of tune,


s: An' it's hard on fellers for'ard that was used to go saloon;


s: Spite of all there's no denyin' that there's finer feelin's aft.


s: A careless, rovin', gay young spark as always travelled aft.


s: There's a notice by the gangway, an' it seems to come amiss,


s: For it says that second-classers 'ain't allowed abaft o' this';


s: An' there ought to be a notice for the fellows from abaft --


s: But the smell an' dirt's a warnin' to the first-salooners, aft;


s: I want to breathe the mornin' breeze that blows against the boat,


s: Yes! the idle and the careless, they have ease an' comfort, aft.


s: I feel so low an' wretched, as I mooch about the deck,


s: That I'm ripe for jumpin' over -- an' I wish there was a wreck!


s: We are driven to New Zealand to be shot out over there --


s: Scarce a shillin' in our pockets, nor a decent rag to wear,


s: With the everlastin' worry lest we don't get into graft --


s: There is little left to land for if you cannot travel aft;


s: Oh, there's little left to land for if you cannot travel aft;


s: But it's grand at sea this mornin', an' Creation almost speaks,


s: Sailin' past the Bay of Islands with its pinnacles an' peaks,


s: With the sunny haze all round us an' the white-caps on the blue,


s: An' we see the beauty for'ard, better than if we were aft;


s: Nature seems to draw us closer -- bring us nearer fore-'n'-aft.


s: What's the use of bein' bitter?  What's the use of gettin' mad?


s: What's the use of bein' narrer just because yer luck is bad?


s: We are used to bein' shabby -- we have got no overdraft --


s: We can laugh at troubles for'ard that they couldn't laugh at aft;


s: There's anxiety an' worry in the breezy cabins aft.


s: There'll be higher education for the toilin' starvin' clown,


s: An' the rich an' educated shall be educated down;


s: An' we all will meet amidships on this stout old earthly craft,


s: An' there won't be any friction 'twixt the classes fore-'n'-aft.


s: When the people work together, and there ain't no fore-'n'-aft.


s: He'd come through miles of slush and mud,


s: He says -- he says -- he don't -- suppose


s: The publican's words were short and few,


s: For time means tucker, and tramp you must,


s: In stifling noons when his back was wrung


s: He blamed himself in the year 'Too Late' --


s: It chanced one day, when the north wind blew


s: A drover came, but the fringe of law was eastward many a mile;


s: _For time means tucker, and tramp they must,


s: With stinted stomachs and blistered feet


s: When you're camping in the mulga, and the rain is falling slow,


s: While you nurse your rheumatism 'neath a patch of calico;


s: Short of tucker or tobacco, short of sugar or of tea,


s: For it cannot last for ever -- 'I will rise again!' says you.


s: When you're dossing out in winter, in the darkness and the rain,


s: Who are ye?  Come, move on -- git out av this!'


s: But it can't go on for ever -- 'I'll have money yet!' says you.


s: Bother not about the morrow, for sufficient to the day


s: Is the evil (rather more so).  Put your trust in God and pray!


s: Study well the ant, thou sluggard.  Blessed are the meek and low.


s: It chanced upon the very day we'd got the shearing done,


s: A buggy brought a stranger to the West-o'-Sunday Run;


s: He had a round and jolly face, and he was sleek and stout,


s: He drove right up between the huts and called the super out.


s: We chaps were smoking after tea, and heard the swell enquire


s: For one as travelled by the name of 'Dunn of Nevertire'.


s: There wasn't one of us but knew Jack Dunn of Nevertire.


s: 'Jack Dunn of Nevertire,' he said; 'I was a mate of his;


s: And now it's twenty years since I set eyes upon his phiz.


s: There is no whiter man than Jack -- no straighter south the line,


s: To help a mate in trouble Jack would go through flood and fire.


s: Great Scott! and don't you know the name of Dunn of Nevertire?


s: He stuck to me through thick and thin, Jack Dunn of Nevertire.


s: 'I did a wild and foolish thing while Jack and I were mates,


s: And I disgraced my guv'nor's name, an' wished to try the States.


s: My lamps were turned to Yankee Land, for I'd some people there,


s: And I was right when someone sent the money for my fare;


s: I thought 'twas Dad until I took the trouble to enquire,


s: And found that he who sent the stuff was Dunn of Nevertire,


s: He'd won some money on a race -- Jack Dunn of Nevertire.


s: 'Now I've returned, by Liverpool, a swell of Yankee brand,


s: To reckon, guess, and kalkilate, 'n' wake my native land;


s: There is no better land, I swear, in all the wide world round --


s: I smelt the bush a month before we touched King George's Sound!


s: And now I've come to settle down, the top of my desire


s: Is just to meet a mate o' mine called 'Dunn of Nevertire'.


s: He humped his bluey by the name of 'Dunn of Nevertire'.


s: 'I've heard he's poor, and if he is, a proud old fool is he;


s: But, spite of that, I'll find a way to fix the old gum-tree.


s: I've bought a station in the North -- the best that could be had;


s: I want no bully-brute to boss -- no crawling, sneaking liar --


s: My station super's name shall be 'Jack Dunn of Nevertire'!


s: I guess he's known up Queensland way -- Jack Dunn of Nevertire.'


s: The super said, while to his face a strange expression came:


s: 'I THINK I've seen the man you want, I THINK I know the name;


s: Had he a jolly kind of face, a free and careless way,


s: They said I'd find him here, the cuss! -- Jack Dunn of Nevertire.


s: 'I doubt it much,' the super said, and sadly puffed his briar,


s: 'I guess he wears a pair of wings -- Jack Dunn of Nevertire;


s: He caught a fever nursing me, Jack Dunn of Nevertire.'


s: We took the stranger round to where a gum-tree stood alone,


s: And in the grass beside the trunk he saw a granite stone;


s: The names of Dunn and Nevertire were plainly written there --


s: 'I'm all broke up,' the stranger said, in sorrow and despair,


s: 'I guess he has a wider run, the man that I require;


s: He's got a river-frontage now, Jack Dunn of Nevertire;


s: I guess Saint Peter knew the name of 'Dunn of Nevertire'.'


s: 'Don't fire! don't fire, in heaven's name!


s: Her brown hands clung -- her face grew pale --


s: Ah! quivering chin and eyes that brim! --


s: Who rides from love, who rides from home;


s: Whose heart has learnt to love and roam._


s: When I come back' -- he laughed for her --


s: {Some editions have four more lines here.}


s: Whose restless heart must rove for rest._


s: The crops have withered from the ground,


s: Through flood and fever, fire and drought,


s: Through childbirth, sickness, hurt, and blight,


s: Through city cheats and neighbours' spite,


s: Our first child took, in days like these,


s: The tears we shed -- the prayers we said


s: I've pulled three through, and buried two


s: I've pulled three through and buried two


s: 'Twas ten years first, then came the worst,


s: I thought, I thought my heart would burst


s: Three bushmen one morning rode up to an inn,


s: And one of them called for the drinks with a grin;


s: They'd only returned from a trip to the North,


s: And, eager to greet them, the landlord came forth.


s: He absently poured out a glass of Three Star.


s: And set down that drink with the rest on the bar.


s: 'There, that is for Harry,' he said, 'and it's queer,


s: 'Tis the very same glass that he drank from last year;


s: His name's on the glass, you can read it like print,


s: He scratched it himself with an old piece of flint;


s: I remember his drink -- it was always Three Star' --


s: And the landlord looked out through the door of the bar.


s: He looked at the horses, and counted but three:


s: 'You were always together -- where's Harry?' cried he.


s: Oh, sadly they looked at the glass as they said,


s: 'You may put it away, for our old mate is dead;'


s: But one, gazing out o'er the ridges afar,


s: Said, 'We owe him a shout -- leave the glass on the bar.'


s: They thought of the far-away grave on the plain,


s: They thought of the comrade who came not again,


s: They lifted their glasses, and sadly they said:


s: 'We drink to the name of the mate who is dead.'


s: And the sunlight streamed in, and a light like a star


s: Seemed to glow in the depth of the glass on the bar.


s: And still in that shanty a tumbler is seen,


s: It stands by the clock, ever polished and clean;


s: And often the strangers will read as they pass


s: The name of a bushman engraved on the glass;


s: And though on the shelf but a dozen there are,


s: That glass never stands with the rest on the bar.


s: When the caravans of wool-teams climbed the ranges from the West,


s: It was built of bark and saplings, and was rather rough inside,


s: As the bushmen called the landlord of the Shanty on the Rise.


s: City swells who 'do the Royal' would have called the Shanty low,


s: But 'twas better far and purer than some toney pubs I know;


s: For the patrons of the Shanty had the principles of men,


s: And the spieler, if he struck it, wasn't welcome there again.


s: You could smoke and drink in quiet, yarn, or else soliloquise,


s: With a decent lot of fellows in the Shanty on the Rise.


s: 'Twas the bullock-driver's haven when his team was on the road,


s: Just to camp within a cooey of the Shanty for the night;


s: And the bullock-bells were clanking from the marshes on the flats


s: And we took a drop of something that was brought at our desire,


s: As we stood with steaming moleskins in the kitchen by the fire.


s: Oh! it roared upon a fireplace of the good, old-fashioned size,


s: When the rain came down the chimney of the Shanty on the Rise.


s: They got up a Christmas party in the Shanty long ago,


s: While I camped with Jimmy Nowlett on the riverbank below;


s: Poor old Jim was in his glory -- they'd elected him M.C.,


s: 'Mr. Nowlett, Mr. Swaller!' shouted Something-in-Disguise,


s: As we walked into the parlour of the Shanty on the Rise.


s: There is little real pleasure in the city where I am --


s: There's a swarry round the corner with its mockery and sham;


s: But a fellow can be happy when around the room he whirls


s: In a party up the country with the jolly country girls.


s: Why, at times I almost fancied I was dancing on the skies,


s: When I danced with Mary Carey in the Shanty on the Rise.


s: Jimmy came to me and whispered, and I muttered, 'Go along!'


s: But he shouted, 'Mr. Swaller will oblige us with a song!'


s: And at first I said I wouldn't, and I shammed a little too,


s: Till the girls began to whisper, 'Mr. Swallow, now, ah, DO!'


s: So I sang a song of something 'bout the love that never dies,


s: And the chorus shook the rafters of the Shanty on the Rise.


s: Jimmy burst his concertina, and the bullock-drivers went


s: For the corpse of Joe the Fiddler, who was sleeping in his tent;


s: Joe was tired and had lumbago, and he wouldn't come, he said,


s: But the case was very urgent, so they pulled him out of bed;


s: Jim and I were rather quiet while escorting Mary home,


s: That we heard the settlers'-matches rustle softly on the tree;


s: I suppose the Shanty vanished from the ranges long ago,


s: And the girls are mostly married to the chaps I used to know;


s: And, upon the very centre of the greenest spot that lies


s: In my fondest recollection, stands the Shanty on the Rise.


s: White handkerchiefs wave from the short black pier


s: But the song of my heart is for none to hear


s: Who has travelled the whole world o'er --


s: A rolling stone! -- 'tis a saw for slaves --


s: Wear out or break 'neath the feet of knaves,


s: But I'D rather trust to the darkest skies


s: Or die, where the stars of Nations rise,


s: Cleave to your country, home, and friends,


s: You can count your friends on your finger ends


s: Slave till your big soft heart they break --


s: Controlled by custom, but, come what might,


s: I'd sail with money, or sail without! --


s: And you dare enough, and your heart be stout,


s: I've never a love that can sting my pride,


s: For I leave my love ere the turning tide,


s: The curse of the Powers on a peace like ours,


s: I had a friend, ere my first ship sailed,


s: For the selfish strain in my blood prevailed


s: And the memory haunts my heart with shame --


s: I had a chum.  When the times were tight


s: And I had a love -- 'twas a love to prize --


s: I have seen the light of her kind brown eyes


s: The sailors say 'twill be rough to-night,


s: The south is black, and the bar is white,


s: The gold has gone from the western haze,


s: The hill is hiding the short black pier,


s: So darkness swallows each far white speck


s: The night comes down on a restless deck, --


s: It was somewhere in September, and the sun was going down,


s: When I came, in search of 'copy', to a Darling-River town;


s: 'Neath the public-house verandah I was resting on a bunk


s: When a stranger rose before me, and he said that he was drunk;


s: He apologised for speaking; there was no offence, he swore;


s: But he somehow seemed to fancy that he'd seen my face before.


s: 'No erfence,' he said.  I told him that he needn't mention it,


s: For I might have met him somewhere; I had travelled round a bit,


s: And I knew a lot of fellows in the bush and in the streets --


s: But a fellow can't remember all the fellows that he meets.


s: Very old and thin and dirty were the garments that he wore,


s: Just a shirt and pair of trousers, and a boot, and nothing more;


s: He was wringing-wet, and really in a sad and sinful plight,


s: And his hat was in his left hand, and a bottle in his right.


s: His brow was broad and roomy, but its lines were somewhat harsh,


s: And a sensual mouth was hidden by a drooping, fair moustache;


s: (His hairy chest was open to what poets call the 'wined',


s: And I would have bet a thousand that his pants were gone behind).


s: 'Only for the blanky horses walkin' over him all night.'


s: He'd apparently been fighting, for his face was black-and-blue,


s: And he looked as though the horses had been treading on him, too;


s: It appeared that he mistook me for a long-lost mate of his --


s: One of whom I was the image, both in figure and in phiz --


s: (He'd have had a letter from him if the chap were living still,


s: For they'd carried swags together from the Gulf to Broken Hill.)


s: Sweeney yarned awhile and hinted that his folks were doing well,


s: And he told me that his father kept the Southern Cross Hotel;


s: And I wondered if his absence was regarded as a loss


s: When he left the elder Sweeney -- landlord of the Southern Cross.


s: He was born in Parramatta, and he said, with humour grim,


s: That he'd like to see the city ere the liquor finished him,


s: But he couldn't raise the money.  He was damned if he could think


s: I declined -- 'TWAS self-denial -- and I lectured him on booze,


s: Using all the hackneyed arguments that preachers mostly use;


s: Then a wise expression struggled with the bruises on his face,


s: Though his argument had scarcely any bearing on the case:


s: But he couldn't stay to argue, for his beer was nearly gone.


s: He was glad, he said, to meet me, and he'd see me later on;


s: He guessed he'd have to go and get his bottle filled again,


s: And he gave a lurch and vanished in the darkness and the rain.


s: And of afternoons in cities, when the rain is on the land,


s: Visions come to me of Sweeney with his bottle in his hand,


s: With the stormy night behind him, and the pub verandah-post --


s: And I wonder why he haunts me more than any other ghost.


s: Still I see the shearers drinking at the township in the scrub,


s: And the army praying nightly at the door of every pub,


s: Well, perhaps, it isn't funny; there were links between us two --


s: And, perhaps, his face forewarned me of a face that I might see


s: From a bitter cup reflected in the wretched days to be.


s: I suppose he's tramping somewhere where the bushmen carry swags,


s: Cadging round the wretched stations with his empty tucker-bags;


s: And I fancy that of evenings, when the track is growing dim,


s: They stood by the door of the Inn on the Rise;


s: May Carney looked up in the bushranger's eyes:


s: 'Oh! why did you come? -- it was mad of you, Jack;


s: You know that the troopers are out on your track.'


s: A laugh and a shake of his obstinate head --


s: 'I wanted a dance, and I'll chance it,' he said.


s: Some twenty-odd bushmen had come to the 'ball',


s: But Jack from his youth had been known to them all,


s: And bushmen are soft where a woman is fair,


s: So the love of May Carney protected him there;


s: And all the short evening -- it seems like romance --


s: She danced with a bushranger taking his chance.


s: 'Twas midnight -- the dancers stood suddenly still,


s: For hoofs had been heard on the side of the hill!


s: Ben Duggan, the drover, along the hillside


s: He sprang from his horse, to the shanty he sped --


s: 'The troopers are down in the gully!' he said.


s: Quite close to the homestead the troopers were seen.


s: 'Clear out and ride hard for the ranges, Jack Dean!


s: Be quick!' said May Carney -- her hand on her heart --


s: 'We'll bluff them awhile, and 'twill give you a start.'


s: He lingered a moment -- to kiss her, of course --


s: Then ran to the trees where he'd hobbled his horse.


s: She ran to the gate, and the troopers were there --


s: The jingle of hobbles came faint on the air --


s: Then loudly she screamed:  it was only to drown


s: The treacherous clatter of slip-rails let down.


s: But troopers are sharp, and she saw at a glance


s: That someone was taking a desperate chance.


s: They chased, and they shouted, 'Surrender, Jack Dean!'


s: They called him three times in the name of the Queen.


s: Then came from the darkness the clicking of locks;


s: The crack of the rifles was heard in the rocks!


s: A shriek and a shout, and a rush of pale men --


s: And there lay the bushranger, chancing it then.


s: The sergeant dismounted and knelt on the sod --


s: 'Your bushranging's over -- make peace, Jack, with God!'


s: The bushranger laughed -- not a word he replied,


s: But turned to the girl who knelt down by his side.


s: He gazed in her eyes as she lifted his head:


s: 'Just kiss me -- my girl -- and -- I'll -- chance it,' he said.


s: When the last rose-tint is fading on the distant mulga scrub,


s: Then the Army prays for Watty at the entrance of his pub.


s: Now, I often sit at Watty's when the night is very near,


s: With a head that's full of jingles and the fumes of bottled beer,


s: When the Army prays for Watty, I'm included in the prayer.


s: Watty lounges in his arm-chair, in its old accustomed place,


s: With a fatherly expression on his round and passive face;


s: And his arms are clasped before him in a calm, contented way,


s: And he nods his head and dozes when he hears the Army pray.


s: And I wonder does he ponder on the distant years and dim,


s: Or his chances over yonder, when the Army prays for him?


s: Has he not a fear connected with the warm place down below,


s: Where, according to good Christians, all the publicans should go?


s: But his features give no token of a feeling in his breast,


s: Save of peace that is unbroken and a conscience well at rest;


s: And we guzzle as we guzzled long before the Army came,


s: It would take a lot of praying -- lots of thumping on the drum --


s: But I love my fellow-sinners, and I hope, upon the whole,


s: That the Army gets a hearing when it prays for Watty's soul.


s: Cliffs, where nought but sea-drift strays;


s: Rocks where nought but sea-drift strays?


s: Jack Denver died on Talbragar when Christmas Eve began,


s: And there was sorrow round the place, for Denver was a man;


s: But big Ben Duggan saddled up, and galloped fast and far,


s: To raise the longest funeral ever seen on Talbragar.


s: He borrowed horses here and there, and rode all Christmas Eve,


s: And scarcely paused a moment's time the mournful news to leave;


s: He rode by lonely huts and farms, and when the day was done


s: He turned his panting horse's head and rode to Ross's Run.


s: No bushman in a single day had ridden half so far


s: Since Johnson brought the doctor to his wife at Talbragar.


s: That night he passed the humpies of the splitters on the ridge,


s: And roused the bullock-drivers camped at Belinfante's Bridge;


s: And as he climbed the ridge again the moon shone on the rise;


s: But in the gorge by Deadman's Gap the mountain shades were black,


s: He saw too late, and then he heard the swift hoof's sudden jar,


s: And big Ben Duggan ne'er again rode home to Talbragar.


s: For thirty miles round Talbragar the boys rolled up in strength,


s: And Denver had a funeral a good long mile in length;


s: But some returning homeward found, by light of moon and star,


s: Ben Duggan dying in the rocks, five miles from Talbragar.


s: And faintly gasped, 'Jack Denver's dead,


s: But one short hour before he died he woke to understand,


s: They told him, when he asked them, that the funeral was 'grand';


s: And then there came into his eyes a strange victorious light,


s: He smiled on them in triumph, and his great soul took its flight.


s: How Duggan raised a funeral years back on Talbragar.


s: And strike for all that is true and strong,


s: And all that ever shall be, so long as man has a soul to save.


s: And the 'straight' is reached and the field is 'gapped'


s: All creeds and trades will have soldiers there --


s: They'll know the glory of victory -- and the grandeur of defeat.


s: And this was the point where the guards held out,


s: They'll tell the tales of the nights before


s: And every boy will want to fight, no matter what cause it be --


s: When the children run to the doors and cry:


s: Will feel, when he hears the march, a touch


s: And this you learn from the libelled past,


s: though its methods were somewhat rude --


s: Out West, where the stars are brightest,


s: And the bones of the dead gleam whitest,


s: From the camp, while the rich man's dreaming,


s: Where a fierce fire burns the hearts of men --


s: When I was up the country in the rough and early days,


s: I used to work along ov Jimmy Nowlett's bullick-drays;


s: Load provisions for the stations, an' we'd travel far and slow


s: Through the plains an' 'cross the ranges in the days of long ago.


s: _Then it's yoke up the bullicks and tramp beside 'em slow,


s: An' saddle up yer horses an' a-ridin' we will go,


s: Once me and Jimmy Nowlett loaded timber for the town,


s: But we hadn't gone a dozen mile before the rain come down,


s: An' me an' Jimmy Nowlett an' the bullicks an' the dray


s: Was cut off on some risin' ground while floods around us lay;


s: An' we soon run short of tucker an' terbacca, which was bad,


s: An' pertaters dipped in honey was the only tuck we had.


s: An' half our bullicks perished when the drought was on the land,


s: An' the burnin' heat that dazzles as it dances on the sand;


s: But we pulled ourselves together, for we never used ter know


s: What a feather bed was good for in those days o' long ago.


s: But in spite ov barren ridges an' in spite ov mud an' heat,


s: An' in spite of modern progress, and in spite of all their blow,


s: 'Twas a better land to live in, in the days o' long ago.


s: When the frosty moon was shinin' o'er the ranges like a lamp,


s: An' a lot of bullick-drivers was a-campin' on the camp,


s: When the fire was blazin' cheery an' the pipes was drawin' well,


s: Then our songs we useter chorus an' our yarns we useter tell;


s: An' we'd talk ov lands we come from, and ov chaps we useter know,


s: Still we pauses at the shanty just to have a drop er cheer,


s: Still I feels a kind ov pleasure when the campin'-ground is near;


s: O'er the timber-truck for shelter in the days ov long ago.


s: I have been a-driftin' back'ards with the changes ov the land,


s: An' if I spoke ter bullicks now they wouldn't understand,


s: But when Mary wakes me sudden in the night I'll often say:


s: An' if Jimmy uses doubleyou instead of ar an' vee,


s: An' if he drops his aitches, then you're sure to know it's he.


s: An' yer won't forgit to arsk him if he still remembers Joe


s: As knowed him up the country in the days o' long ago.


s: _Then it's yoke up the bullicks and tramp beside 'em slow,


s: An' saddle up yer horses an' a-ridin' we will go,


s: I've heard bush-wimmin scream an' squall --


s: He'd make them dance and sing all night,


s: The rafters are open to sun, moon, and star,


s: Thistles and nettles grow high in the bar --


s: The chimneys are crumbling, the log fires are dead,


s: And green mosses spring from the hearthstone instead.


s: The voices are silent, the bustle and din,


s: For the railroad hath ruined the Cherry-tree Inn.


s: Save the glimmer of stars, or the moon's pallid streams,


s: And the sounds of the 'possums that camp on the beams,


s: The bar-room is dark and the stable is still,


s: For the coach comes no more over Cherry-tree Hill.


s: No riders push on through the darkness to win


s: The rest and the comfort of Cherry-tree Inn.


s: I drift from my theme, for my memory strays


s: To the carrying, digging, and bushranging days --


s: Far back to the seasons that I love the best,


s: When a stream of wild diggers rushed into the west,


s: But the 'rushes' grew feeble, and sluggish, and thin,


s: Till scarcely a swagman passed Cherry-tree Inn.


s: Do you think, my old mate (if it's thinking you be),


s: Of the days when you tramped to the goldfields with me?


s: Do you think of the day of our thirty-mile tramp,


s: When never a fire could we light on the camp,


s: And, weary and footsore and drenched to the skin,


s: We tramped through the darkness to Cherry-tree Inn?


s: Then I had a sweetheart and you had a wife,


s: And Johnny was more to his mother than life;


s: But we solemnly swore, ere that evening was done,


s: That we'd never return till our fortunes were won.


s: Next morning to harvests of folly and sin


s: We tramped o'er the ranges from Cherry-tree Inn.


s: The years have gone over with many a change,


s: And there comes an old swagman from over the range,


s: And faint 'neath the weight of his rain-sodden load,


s: He suddenly thinks of the inn by the road.


s: He tramps through the darkness the shelter to win,


s: And reaches the ruins of Cherry-tree Inn.


s: I am back from up the country -- very sorry that I went --


s: Seeking for the Southern poets' land whereon to pitch my tent;


s: I have lost a lot of idols, which were broken on the track,


s: Burnt a lot of fancy verses, and I'm glad that I am back.


s: Further out may be the pleasant scenes of which our poets boast,


s: But I think the country's rather more inviting round the coast.


s: Anyway, I'll stay at present at a boarding-house in town,


s: Drinking beer and lemon-squashes, taking baths and cooling down.


s: 'Sunny plains'!  Great Scott! -- those burning


s: With their everlasting fences stretching out across the land!


s: Desolation where the crow is!  Desert where the eagle flies,


s: Turned from some infernal furnace on a plain devoid of grass.


s: Where the God-forgotten hatter dreams of city life and beer.


s: Treacherous tracks that trap the stranger,


s: Dark and evil-looking gullies, hiding secrets here and there!


s: Land of day and night -- no morning freshness, and no afternoon,


s: When the great white sun in rising bringeth summer heat in June.


s: Dismal country for the exile, when the shades begin to fall


s: From the sad heart-breaking sunset, to the new-chum worst of all.


s: Dreary land in rainy weather, with the endless clouds that drift


s: O'er the bushman like a blanket that the Lord will never lift --


s: Ghastly fires in lonely humpies where the granite rocks are piled


s: Land where gaunt and haggard women live alone and work like men,


s: Till their husbands, gone a-droving, will return to them again:


s: Homes of men! if home had ever such a God-forgotten place,


s: Where the wild selector's children fly before a stranger's face.


s: Home of tragedy applauded by the dingoes' dismal yell,


s: Heaven of the shanty-keeper -- fitting fiend for such a hell --


s: I am back from up the country, up the country where I went


s: Seeking for the Southern poets' land whereon to pitch my tent;


s: I have shattered many idols out along the dusty track,


s: Burnt a lot of fancy verses -- and I'm glad that I am back.


s: I believe the Southern poets' dream will not be realised


s: Till the plains are irrigated and the land is humanised.


s: I intend to stay at present, as I said before, in town


s: Drinking beer and lemon-squashes, taking baths and cooling down.


s: I've got no spirits left to rise and smooth me achin' brow --


s: I'm too knocked up to light a fire and bile the billy now.


s: It's tramp an' tramp for tucker -- one everlastin' strife,


s: An' wearin' out yer boots an' heart in the wastin' of yer life._


s: They whine o' lost an' wasted lives in idleness and crime --


s: I've wasted mine for twenty years, and grafted all the time


s: And never drunk the stuff I earned, nor gambled when I shore --


s: But somehow when yer on the track yer life seems wasted more.


s: There's twenty hungry beggars wild for any job this year,


s: An' fifty might be at the shed while I am lyin' here.


s: The sinews in my legs seem drawn, red-hot -- 'n that's the truth;


s: The blessed rain is comin' too -- there's oceans in the sky,


s: An' I suppose I must get up and rig the blessed fly;


s: The heat is bad, the water's bad, the flies a crimson curse,


s: The grub is bad, mosquitoes damned -- but rheumatism's worse.


s: I wonder why poor blokes like me will stick so fast ter breath,


s: Though Shakespeare says it is the fear of somethin' after death;


s: But though Eternity be cursed with God's almighty curse --


s: What ever that same somethin' is I swear it can't be worse.


s: A-wearin' out yer heart 'n soul in the wastin' of yer life._


s: In shadowed depths, whence dust and heat


s: It was pleasant up the country, City Bushman, where you went,


s: For you sought the greener patches and you travelled like a gent;


s: Though you know the squalid city needn't keep you from the bush;


s: But his back is growing rounder -- slaving for the absentee --


s: And his toiling wife is thinner than a country wife should be.


s: For we noticed that the faces of the folks we chanced to meet


s: Should have made a greater contrast to the faces in the street;


s: And, in short, we think the bushman's being driven to the wall,


s: And it's doubtful if his spirit will be 'loyal thro' it all'.


s: Though the bush has been romantic and it's nice to sing about,


s: There's a lot of patriotism that the land could do without --


s: Sort of BRITISH WORKMAN nonsense that shall perish in the scorn


s: Of the drover who is driven and the shearer who is shorn,


s: Of the struggling western farmers who have little time for rest,


s: And are ruined on selections in the sheep-infested West;


s: Droving songs are very pretty, but they merit little thanks


s: From the people of a country in possession of the Banks.


s: For the drought will go on drying while there's anything to dry,


s: Then it rains until you'd fancy it would bleach the sunny sky --


s: Then it pelters out of reason, for the downpour day and night


s: Nearly sweeps the population to the Great Australian Bight.


s: It is up in Northern Queensland that the seasons do their best,


s: But it's doubtful if you ever saw a season in the West;


s: There are years without an autumn or a winter or a spring,


s: In the bush my ears were opened to the singing of the bird,


s: But the 'carol of the magpie' was a thing I never heard.


s: Once the beggar roused my slumbers in a shanty, it is true,


s: But I only heard him asking, 'Who the blanky blank are you?'


s: Yes, I heard the shearers singing 'William Riley', out of tune,


s: Saw 'em fighting round a shanty on a Sunday afternoon,


s: But the bushman isn't always 'trapping brumbies in the night',


s: Nor is he for ever riding when 'the morn is fresh and bright',


s: And he isn't always singing in the humpies on the run --


s: And the camp-fire's 'cheery blazes' are a trifle overdone;


s: We have grumbled with the bushmen round the fire on rainy days,


s: When the smoke would blind a bullock and there wasn't any blaze,


s: Save the blazes of our language, for we cursed the fire in turn


s: Till the atmosphere was heated and the wood began to burn.


s: Then we had to wring our blueys which were rotting in the swags,


s: And we saw the sugar leaking through the bottoms of the bags,


s: And we couldn't raise a chorus, for the toothache and the cramp,


s: To be losing time and money through the foot-rot in the flock,


s: And you wouldn't mind the beauties underneath the starry dome


s: If you had a wife and children and a lot of bills at home.


s: Did you ever guard the cattle when the night was inky-black,


s: And it rained, and icy water trickled gently down your back


s: Till your saddle-weary backbone fell a-aching to the roots


s: Till a squatter's irate dummy cantered up to warn you off?


s: Do you think the bush was better in the 'good old droving days',


s: When the squatter ruled supremely as the king of western ways,


s: When you got a slip of paper for the little you could earn,


s: But were forced to take provisions from the station in return --


s: When you couldn't keep a chicken at your humpy on the run,


s: While you 'rose up Willy Riley' -- in the days ere you were born?


s: Ah! we read about the drovers and the shearers and the like


s: Till we wonder why such happy and romantic fellows strike.


s: Don't you fancy that the poets ought to give the bush a rest


s: Ere they raise a just rebellion in the over-written West?


s: Where the simple-minded bushman gets a meal and bed and rum


s: Just by riding round reporting phantom flocks that never come;


s: Where the idle shanty-keeper never fails to make a draw,


s: And the dummy gets his tucker through provisions in the law;


s: Where the labour-agitator -- when the shearers rise in might --


s: Makes his money sacrificing all his substance for The Right;


s: Where the drovers and the shearers and the bushmen and the rest


s: Never reach the Eldorado of the poets of the West.


s: And you think the bush is purer and that life is better there,


s: Of the awful 'city urchin who would greet you with a curse'.


s: Do you think we're never jolly where the trams and buses rage?


s: Did you hear the gods in chorus when 'Ri-tooral' held the stage?


s: Did you catch a ring of sorrow in the city urchin's voice


s: When they drink and flirt and so on in the glow of private bars?


s: (And about that self-same attic -- Lord! wherever have you been?


s: For the struggling needlewoman mostly keeps her attic clean.)


s: But you'll find it very jolly with the cuff-and-collar push,


s: And the city seems to suit you, while you rave about the bush.


s: You'll admit that Up-the Country, more especially in drought,


s: Isn't quite the Eldorado that the poets rave about,


s: Yet at times we long to gallop where the reckless bushman rides


s: In the wake of startled brumbies that are flying for their hides;


s: And to hear the stockwhips rattle just like rifles in the trees!


s: Long to feel the bridle-leather tugging strongly in the hand


s: And to feel once more a little like a native of the land.


s: And the ring of bitter feeling in the jingling of our rhymes


s: Isn't suited to the country nor the spirit of the times.


s: Let us go together droving, and returning, if we live,


s: Try to understand each other while we reckon up the div.


s: There are scenes in the distance where beauty is not,


s: On the desolate flats where gaunt appletrees rot.


s: Where the brooding old ridge rises up to the breeze


s: From his dark lonely gullies of stringy-bark trees,


s: There are voice-haunted gaps, ever sullen and strange,


s: But Eurunderee lies like a gem in the range.


s: Still I see in my fancy the dark-green and blue


s: Of the box-covered hills where the five-corners grew;


s: And the rugged old sheoaks that sighed in the bend


s: O'er the lily-decked pools where the dark ridges end,


s: And the scrub-covered spurs running down from the Peak


s: To the deep grassy banks of Eurunderee Creek.


s: On the knolls where the vineyards and fruit-gardens are


s: There's a beauty that even the drought cannot mar;


s: For I noticed it oft, in the days that are lost,


s: As I trod on the siding where lingered the frost,


s: When the shadows of night from the gullies were gone


s: And the hills in the background were flushed by the dawn.


s: I was there in late years, but there's many a change


s: Where the Cudgegong River flows down through the range,


s: For the curse of the town with the railroad had come,


s: And the goldfields were dead.  And the girl and the chum


s: And the old home were gone, yet the oaks seemed to speak


s: Of the hazy old days on Eurunderee Creek.


s: And I stood by that creek, ere the sunset grew cold,


s: When the leaves of the sheoaks are traced on the gold,


s: And I thought of old things, and I thought of old folks,


s: Till I sighed in my heart to the sigh of the oaks;


s: For the years waste away like the waters that leak


s: Through the pebbles and sand of Eurunderee Creek.


s: Hands and hearts the labour strengthened;


s: One Christmas time, when months of drought


s: The hill-fires looked like lighted streets


s: 'I won't come back,' young Robert cried,


s: 'Here's help at last,' young Robert cried,


s: With eyes half-shut to the blinding dust,


s: The beasts are pulling as bullocks must;


s: With face half-hid 'neath a broad-brimmed hat


s: That shades from the heat's white waves,


s: And shouldered whip with its green-hide plait,


s: He shouts at 'Bally', and flicks at 'Scot',


s: And raises dust from the back of 'Spot',


s: He'll sometimes pause as a thing of form


s: And ask for a drink, and remark 'It's warm,


s: Or say 'There's signs of a thunder-storm';


s: But the rains are heavy on roads like these;


s: And then when the roads are at their worst,


s: While bullocks pull as their hearts would burst,


s: And thus -- 'tis a cruel war at the best --


s: The diggings were just in their glory when Alister Cameron came,


s: and they said he was proof to the dart --


s: That nothing but whisky and gaming had ever a place in his heart;


s: A bit of a worn silver chain, and the portrait of Cameron's girl.


s: It chanced in the first of the Sixties that Ally and I and McKean


s: where it suddenly stopped, and hung still.


s: I knew what was up in a moment when Cameron shouted to me:


s: 'Climb up for your life by the footholes.


s: And those were the last words he uttered.


s: He groaned, for I heard him quite plain --


s: I wonder did Alister think of the scenes in the distance so dim,


s: When you haven't got a billet, and the times are very slack,


s: There is nothing that can spur you like the shame of going back;


s: Oh! it's then you learn the meaning of humiliation's cup.


s: When the place and you are strangers and you struggle all alone,


s: And you have a mighty longing for the town where you are known;


s: When your clothes are very shabby and the future's very black,


s: There is nothing that can hurt you like the shame of going back.


s: When we've fought the battle bravely and are beaten to the wall,


s: And your heart is in the shadow of the shame of going back.


s: When a beaten man's discovered with a bullet in his brain,


s: But it very often happens that he'd lately got the sack,


s: And his onward move was owing to the shame of going back.


s: You will learn the bitter meaning of the shame of going back;


s: Oh, you'll taste the bitter poison in humiliation's cup.


s: But times have altered since those old days,


s: Ah, well! there's little to blame or praise --


s: His hat was battered, his coat was green,


s: But the pride was his!  It was I felt mean --


s: I wished that my collar was not so clean,


s: Why have we no faith in each other?  Ah, why? --


s: He ought to have known me better than that,


s: The sweltering scrub and the blazing flat,


s: When the heat came down through each old felt hat


s: The cheques we made and the shanty sprees,


s: The long wet tramps when the plains were seas,


s: And the oracles worked in days like these


s: When the first great test of our friendship came --


s: But -- well, there's little to praise or blame


s: 'Heads!' he laughed (but his face was stern) --


s: We loved her fair, we had much to learn --


s: And each was stabbed to the heart in turn


s: Or the last day lost on the lignum plain,


s: When I staggered, half-blind, half-dead,


s: With a burning throat and a tortured brain;


s: And the tank when we came to the track again


s: Then life seemed finished -- then death began


s: But he stuck to his mate as a bushman can,


s: Till I heard him saying, 'Bear up, old man!'


s: And we seemed like men who have nought to say


s: And who meet -- 'Good-day', and who part -- 'Good-day',


s: But his manner no longer was careless and free,


s: He followed, but not with the grin that he


s: I tried to live in the past once more --


s: But the days between I could not ignore --


s: I couldn't help notice the clothes he wore,


s: He placed his glass on the polished bar,


s: Then he hurried away through the crowded street


s: And the rattle of buses and scrape of feet


s: And I almost wished that the time were come


s: When boys will start on the track from home


s: He had offices in Sydney, not so many years ago,


s: And his shingle bore the legend 'Peter Anderson and Co.',


s: But his real name was Careless, as the fellows understood --


s: And his relatives decided that he wasn't any good.


s: 'Twas their gentle tongues that blasted any 'character' he had --


s: It was limited in number to a unit, was the Co. --


s: 'Twas a bosom chum of Peter and his Christian name was Joe.


s: 'Tis a class of men belonging to these soul-forsaken years:


s: Third-rate canvassers, collectors, journalists and auctioneers.


s: They are never very shabby, they are never very spruce --


s: Going cheerfully and carelessly and smoothly to the deuce.


s: Some are wanderers by profession, 'turning up' and gone as soon,


s: Peter met you with the comic smile of one who knows you well,


s: And is mighty glad to see you, and has got a joke to tell;


s: Only cynical in cases where his own self was the jest,


s: And the humour of his good yarns made atonement for the rest.


s: (You can always furnish cheaply, when your cash or credit fails,


s: With a packing-case, a hammer, and a pound of two-inch nails --


s: And, maybe, a drop of varnish and sienna, too, for tints,


s: And a scrap or two of oilcloth, and a yard or two of chintz).


s: The office was their haven, for they lived there when hard-up --


s: A 'daily' for a table cloth -- a jam tin for a cup;


s: And if the landlord's bailiff happened round in times like these


s: Till another portal boasted 'Peter Anderson and Co.'


s: Gloriously drunk and happy, till they heard the roosters crow --


s: And the landlady and neighbours made complaints about the Co.


s: But that life! it might be likened to a reckless drinking-song,


s: For it can't go on for ever, and it never lasted long.


s: Debt-collecting ruined Peter -- people talked him round too oft,


s: He would ask him round the corner, and it seemed to him and her,


s: And perhaps it pays in heaven, but on earth it doesn't pay.


s: They got harder up than ever, and, to make it worse, the Co.


s: Went more often round the corner than was good for him to go.


s: 'I might live,' he said to Peter, 'but I haven't got the nerve --


s: Eat and drink and love they tell us, for to-morrow we may die,


s: 'The death of such philosophy's the death I'm dying now.


s: Pull yourself together, Peter; 'tis the dying wish of Joe


s: That the business world shall honour Peter Anderson and Co.


s: 'When you feel your life is sinking in a dull and useless course,


s: See if you can raise a drink, old man, I'm feelin' mighty bad --


s: Or a joke to try on Peter -- or, perhaps, it was the rum.


s: Yet, to show his heart was not of human decency bereft,


s: Peter paid the undertaker.  He got drunk on what was left;


s: And the dying words of Joseph, ringing through his own despair,


s: Peter 'pulled himself together' and he started business there.


s: But his life was very lonely, and his heart was very sad,


s: And no help to reformation was the company he had --


s: And a boundary-rider jogging out across the neighb'ring run


s: Was attracted by a something that was blazing in the sun;


s: And he found that it was Peter, lying peacefully at rest,


s: With a bottle close beside him and the shingle on his breast.


s: Well, they analysed the liquor, and it would appear that he


s: Qualified his drink with something good for setting spirits free.


s: On a lonely selection far out in the West


s: An old woman works all the day without rest,


s: And she croons, as she toils 'neath the sky's glassy dome,


s: 'Sure I'll keep the ould place till the childer come home.'


s: She mends all the fences, she grubs, and she ploughs,


s: She drives the old horse and she milks all the cows,


s: And she sings to herself as she thatches the stack,


s: 'Sure I'll keep the ould place till the childer come back.'


s: It is five weary years since her old husband died;


s: And oft as he lay on his deathbed he sighed


s: 'Sure one man can bring up ten children, he can,


s: An' it's strange that ten sons cannot keep one old man.'


s: Whenever the scowling old sundowners come,


s: And cunningly ask if the master's at home,


s: 'Be off,' she replies, 'with your blarney and cant,


s: Or I'll call my son Andy; he's workin' beyant.'


s: 'Git out,' she replies, though she trembles with fear,


s: For she lives all alone and no neighbours are near;


s: But she says to herself, when she's like to despond,


s: That the boys are at work in the paddock beyond.


s: Ah, none of her children need follow the plough,


s: And some have grown rich in the city ere now;


s: Yet she says:  'They might come when the shearing is done,


s: And I'll keep the ould place if it's only for one.'


s: None would think Death's finger's hooking


s: Pants?  They're far from being recent --


s: Once -- no matter how the rest dressed --


s: Takes the stage at times, and fills it --


s: Raise a sneer! -- his first line kills it,


s: Nor the sight -- well, deem it blindness,


s: If you fancy that your people came of better stock than mine,


s: If you hint of higher breeding by a word or by a sign,


s: If you're proud because of fortune or the clever things you do --


s: If you think that your profession has the more gentility,


s: And that you are condescending to be seen along with me;


s: If you have a swell companion when you see me on the street,


s: And you think that I'm too common for your toney friend to meet,


s: So that I, in passing closely, fail to come within your view --


s: Then be blind to me for ever:  I'm a prouder man than you!


s: If your character be blameless, if your outward past be clean,


s: 'Birds o' feather fly together':  I'm a prouder bird than you!


s: Keep your patronage for others!  Gold and station cannot hide


s: And my wall of pride is shattered:  I am not so proud as you!


s: They were hushed in the swamp of the Dead Man's Crime,


s: But they reached the river the self-same time,


s: So you're writing for a paper?  Well, it's nothing very new


s: To be writing yards of drivel for a tidy little screw;


s: You are young and educated, and a clever chap you are,


s: But you'll never run a paper like the CAMBAROORA STAR.


s: Though in point of education I am nothing but a dunce,


s: I myself -- you mayn't believe it -- helped to run a paper once


s: With a chap on Cambaroora, by the name of Charlie Brown,


s: And I'll tell you all about it if you'll take the story down.


s: On a golden day in summer, when the sunrays were aslant,


s: Brown arrived in Cambaroora with a little printing plant


s: He had bought an empty humpy, and, instead of getting tight,


s: And next day a sign of canvas, writ in characters of tar,


s: Claimed the humpy as the office of the CAMBAROORA STAR.


s: Well, I cannot read, that's honest, but I had a digger friend


s: Who would read the paper to me from the title to the end;


s: Once I showed it to a critic, and he said 'twas very fine,


s: Though he wasn't long in finding glaring faults in every line;


s: But it was a song of Freedom -- all the clever critic said


s: So I went where Brown was working in his little hut hard by:


s: And your principles is honest, Brown; I want to shake your hand,


s: And if there's any lumping in connection with the STAR,


s: Brown was every inch a digger (bronzed and bearded in the South),


s: So we worked a little 'paddock' on a place they called the 'Bar',


s: Well, I didn't shirk my promise, and I helped the thing, I guess,


s: For she died on Cambaroora when the STAR began to go,


s: And was buried like the diggers buried diggers long ago.


s: Many nights we'd sit together in the windy hut and fold,


s: And I helped the thing a little when I struck a patch of gold;


s: And we battled for the diggers as the papers seldom do,


s: Though when the diggers errored, why, we touched the diggers too.


s: And the diggers sent a nugget with their sympathy to Brown.


s: Oft I sat and smoked beside him in the listening hours of night,


s: Diggers then had little mercy for the loafer and the scamp --


s: If there wasn't law and order, there was justice in the camp;


s: And the manly independence that is found where diggers are


s: Had a sentinel to guard it in the CAMBAROORA STAR.


s: And who only shepherd diggers till they track them to the 'find'.


s: Charlie wrote a slinging leader, calling on his digger mates,


s: It was nine o'clock next morning when the Chows began to swarm,


s: Give three ringing cheers, my hearties, for the CAMBAROORA STAR.'


s: But the Cambaroora petered, and the diggers' sun went down,


s: And another sort of people came and settled in the town;


s: The reefing was conducted by a syndicate or two,


s: But his leaders went like thunder for their vested interests,


s: And he fought for right and justice and he raved about the dawn


s: Of the reign of Man and Reason till his ads. were all withdrawn.


s: He was offered shares for nothing in the richest of the mines,


s: And he could have made a fortune had he run on other lines;


s: They abused him for his leaders, and they parodied his rhymes,


s: And they told him that his paper was a mile behind the times.


s: So we fought the battle bravely, and we did our very best


s: Just to make the final issue quite as lively as the rest.


s: And the swells in Cambaroora talked of feathers and of tar


s: When they read the final issue of the CAMBAROORA STAR.


s: But in vain we scraped together every penny we could get,


s: Though we gave him ads. for nothing when the STAR began to boom:


s: 'Twas a paltry bill for tucker, and the crawling, sneaking clown


s: Sold the debt for twice its value to the men who hated Brown.


s: I was digging up the river, and I swam the flooded bend


s: With a little cash and comfort for my literary friend.


s: Brown was sitting sad and lonely with his head bowed in despair,


s: While a single tallow candle threw a flicker on his hair,


s: And the gusty wind that whistled through the crannies of the door


s: Then he stood up on a sudden, with a face as pale as death,


s: Listen!  Like the distant thunder of the rollers on the bar --


s: The river is high and the stream is strong,


s: Let our enemies go by their old dull tracks,


s: It well may be that I saw too plain, and it may be I was blind;


s: But I'll keep my face to the dawning light,


s: You almost heard the surface bake, and saw the gum-leaves turn --


s: The tanks went dry on Ninety Mile, as tanks go dry out back,


s: Too blind to see there was no shade, and too done-up to feel.


s: And charcoaled on the canvas bag ('twas written pretty clear)


s: 'Spread out as widely as you can each side the track,' said he;


s: 'The first to find him make a smoke that all the rest can see.'


s: We took the track and followed back where Crowbar followed fate,


s: We found a dead man in the scrub -- but 'twas not Crowbar's mate.


s: And no one, save the spirit of the sand-waste, fierce and lone,


s: He'd scarcely closed his quiet eyes or drawn a sleeping breath --


s: A careless, roving scamp, that loved to laugh and drink and joke,


s: The search was made as searches are (and often made in vain),


s: And on the seventh day we saw a smoke across the plain;


s: And when we gave it best at last, he said, 'I'LL see it through,'


s: I'll see it so in twenty years, 'twill haunt me all my life --


s: I could not face his sister, and I could not face his wife.


s: It's no use talking to me now -- I'm going back,' he said,


s: 'I'm going back to find him, and I will -- alive or dead!'


s: He packed his horse with water and provisions for a week,


s: And then, at sunset, crossed the plain, away from Dingo Creek.


s: We watched him tramp beside the horse till we, as it grew late,


s: Could not tell which was Bonypart and which was Marshall's mate.


s: The dam went dry at Dingo Creek, and we were driven back,


s: And none dared face the Ninety Mile when Crowbar took the track.


s: They saw him at Dead Camel and along the Dry Hole Creeks --


s: But no one knew how Crowbar died -- the soul of Marshall knows!


s: And now, way out on Dingo Creek, when winter days are late,


s: Beyond the furthest two-rail fence, Colanne and Nevertire --


s: Beyond the furthest rabbit-proof, barbed wire and common wire --


s: Beyond the Land o' Break-o'-Day, and Sunset and the Dawn,


s: The soul of Marshall and the soul of Marshall's mate have gone


s: Unto that Loving, Laughing Land where life is fresh and clean --


s: Where the rivers flow all summer, and the grass is always green.


s: The world has had enough of bards who wish that they were dead,


s: 'Tis time the people passed a law to knock 'em on the head,


s: They talk of peace and restfulness connected with the tomb.


s: They say that man is made of dirt, and die, of course, he must;


s: But, all the same, a man is made of pretty solid dust.


s: There is a thing that they forget, so let it here be writ,


s: That some are made of common mud, and some are made of GRIT;


s: Some try to help the world along while others fret and fume


s: And wish that they were slumbering in the silence of the tomb.


s: 'Twixt mother's arms and coffin-gear a man has work to do!


s: And if he does his very best he mostly worries through,


s: And yet, as long as sheoaks sigh and wattle-blossoms bloom,


s: The world shall hear the drivel of the poets of the tomb.


s: And though the graveyard poets long to vanish from the scene,


s: I notice that they mostly wish their resting-place kept green.


s: Now, were I rotting underground, I do not think I'd care


s: If wombats rooted on the mound or if the cows camped there;


s: And should I have some feelings left when I have gone before,


s: I think a ton of solid stone would hurt my feelings more.


s: Such wormy songs of mouldy joys can give me no delight;


s: I'll take my chances with the world, I'd rather live and fight.


s: While you use your best endeavour to immortalise in verse


s: You're a clever southern writer, scarce inferior to Bret Harte.


s: If you sing of waving grasses when the plains are dry as bricks,


s: And discover shining rivers where there's only mud and sticks;


s: You are gracefully referred to as the 'young Australian Burns'.


s: Your grammar's simply awful and your intellect is weak.


s: Down the street as I was drifting with the city's human tide,


s: Came a ghost, and for a moment walked in silence by my side --


s: Now my heart was hard and bitter, and a bitter spirit he,


s: So I felt no great aversion to his ghostly company.


s: When he'll gladly fly for succour to the bosom of the foe.


s: 'Where Society is mighty, always truckle to her rule;


s: Never send an 'i' undotted to the teacher of a school;


s: Only fight a wrong or falsehood when the crowd is at your back,


s: And, till Charity repay you, shut the purse, and let her pack;


s: At the fools who would do other let your lip in scorn be curled,


s: 'Ne'er assail the shaky ladders Fame has from her niches hung,


s: Lest unfriendly heels above you grind your fingers from the rung;


s: And the banter of the critic hurts his heart till it grows hard.


s: At the fame your muse may offer let your lip in scorn be curled,


s: Then he ceased and looked intently in my face, and nearer drew;


s: But a sudden deep repugnance to his presence thrilled me through;


s: Then I felt his breath was poison, by the shuddering of my soul,


s: Then I guessed his purpose evil, by his lip in sneering curled,


s: And I knew he slandered mankind, by my knowledge of the world.


s: But he vanished as a purer brighter presence gained my side --


s: 'Heed him not! there's truth and friendship


s: And of those who cleave to virtue in their climbing for renown,


s: Only they who faint or falter from the height are shaken down.


s: At a cynic's baneful teaching let your lip in scorn be curled!


s: 'Brotherhood and Love and Honour!' is the motto for the world.'


s: THE ACADEMY:  "These ballads (for such they mostly are) abound in


s: NEWCASTLE WEEKLY CHRONICLE:  "Swinging, rhythmic verse."


s: THE SCOTSMAN:  "There is no lack of dramatic imagination in


s: LITERATURE:  "These sketches bring us into contact with one phase


s: THE SPECTATOR:  "It is strange that one we would venture to call


s: which by a few strong strokes can set place and people before you


s: BRITISH WEEKLY:  "Many of Mr. Lawson's tales photograph life


s: Joe Wilson's Mates            Winnowed Verses


s: Arms, and the man I sing, who, forc'd by fate,


s: Expell'd and exil'd, left the Trojan shore.


s: Long labors, both by sea and land, he bore,


s: The Latian realm, and built the destin'd town;


s: His banish'd gods restor'd to rites divine,


s: And settled sure succession in his line,


s: From whence the race of Alban fathers come,


s: O Muse! the causes and the crimes relate;


s: What goddess was provok'd, and whence her hate;


s: For what offense the Queen of Heav'n began


s: Involv'd his anxious life in endless cares,


s: Expos'd to wants, and hurried into wars!


s: Can heav'nly minds such high resentment show,


s: Against the Tiber's mouth, but far away,


s: Stout for the war, and studious of their trade:


s: Than her own Argos, or the Samian shore.


s: Here stood her chariot; here, if Heav'n were kind,


s: That times to come should see the Trojan race


s: Her Carthage ruin, and her tow'rs deface;


s: Nor thus confin'd, the yoke of sov'reign sway


s: Should on the necks of all the nations lay.


s: She ponder'd this, and fear'd it was in fate;


s: Nor could forget the war she wag'd of late


s: For conqu'ring Greece against the Trojan state.


s: Besides, long causes working in her mind,


s: Deep graven in her heart the doom remain'd


s: Of partial Paris, and her form disdain'd;


s: Each was a cause alone; and all combin'd


s: To kindle vengeance in her haughty mind.


s: For this, far distant from the Latian coast


s: She drove the remnants of the Trojan host;


s: And sev'n long years th' unhappy wand'ring train


s: Were toss'd by storms, and scatter'd thro' the main.


s: Such time, such toil, requir'd the Roman name,


s: Such length of labor for so vast a frame.


s: Now scarce the Trojan fleet, with sails and oars,


s: Had left behind the fair Sicilian shores,


s: Ent'ring with cheerful shouts the wat'ry reign,


s: When, lab'ring still with endless discontent,


s: The Queen of Heav'n did thus her fury vent:


s: "Then am I vanquish'd? must I yield?" said she,


s: So Fate will have it, and Jove adds his force;


s: Nor can my pow'r divert their happy course.


s: Could angry Pallas, with revengeful spleen,


s: The Grecian navy burn, and drown the men?


s: She, for the fault of one offending foe,


s: The bolts of Jove himself presum'd to throw:


s: With whirlwinds from beneath she toss'd the ship,


s: Then, as an eagle gripes the trembling game,


s: The wretch, yet hissing with her father's flame,


s: She strongly seiz'd, and with a burning wound


s: Transfix'd, and naked, on a rock she bound.


s: The majesty of heav'n, the sister wife of Jove,


s: For length of years my fruitless force employ


s: Against the thin remains of ruin'd Troy!


s: What nations now to Juno's pow'r will pray,


s: Or off'rings on my slighted altars lay?"


s: Thus rag'd the goddess; and, with fury fraught.


s: The restless regions of the storms she sought,


s: Where, in a spacious cave of living stone,


s: The tyrant Aeolus, from his airy throne,


s: With pow'r imperial curbs the struggling winds,


s: And sounding tempests in dark prisons binds.


s: This way and that th' impatient captives tend,


s: And, pressing for release, the mountains rend.


s: High in his hall th' undaunted monarch stands,


s: And shakes his scepter, and their rage commands;


s: Would sweep the world before them in their way;


s: Earth, air, and seas thro' empty space would roll,


s: And heav'n would fly before the driving soul.


s: Confin'd their fury to those dark abodes,


s: And lock'd 'em safe within, oppress'd with mountain loads;


s: To loose their fetters, or their force allay.


s: To whom the suppliant queen her pray'rs address'd,


s: And thus the tenor of her suit express'd:


s: "O Aeolus! for to thee the King of Heav'n


s: The pow'r of tempests and of winds has giv'n;


s: Thy force alone their fury can restrain,


s: And smooth the waves, or swell the troubled main-


s: A race of wand'ring slaves, abhorr'd by me,


s: With prosp'rous passage cut the Tuscan sea;


s: To fruitful Italy their course they steer,


s: And for their vanquish'd gods design new temples there.


s: Raise all thy winds; with night involve the skies;


s: Twice sev'n, the charming daughters of the main,


s: Around my person wait, and bear my train:


s: To this the god: "'T is yours, O queen, to will


s: These airy kingdoms, and this wide command,


s: Are all the presents of your bounteous hand:


s: Yours is my sov'reign's grace; and, as your guest,


s: I sit with gods at their celestial feast;


s: Raise tempests at your pleasure, or subdue;


s: Dispose of empire, which I hold from you."


s: He said, and hurl'd against the mountain side


s: His quiv'ring spear, and all the god applied.


s: The raging winds rush thro' the hollow wound,


s: And dance aloft in air, and skim along the ground;


s: Then, settling on the sea, the surges sweep,


s: Raise liquid mountains, and disclose the deep.


s: South, East, and West with mix'd confusion roar,


s: And roll the foaming billows to the shore.


s: The cables crack; the sailors' fearful cries


s: Ascend; and sable night involves the skies;


s: And heav'n itself is ravish'd from their eyes.


s: Loud peals of thunder from the poles ensue;


s: Then flashing fires the transient light renew;


s: The face of things a frightful image bears,


s: And present death in various forms appears.


s: Struck with unusual fright, the Trojan chief,


s: With lifted hands and eyes, invokes relief;


s: And, "Thrice and four times happy those," he cried,


s: "That under Ilian walls before their parents died!


s: Why could not I by that strong arm be slain,


s: Or great Sarpedon, in those bloody fields


s: Where Simois rolls the bodies and the shields


s: Of heroes, whose dismember'd hands yet bear


s: The dart aloft, and clench the pointed spear!"


s: Thus while the pious prince his fate bewails,


s: Fierce Boreas drove against his flying sails,


s: And rent the sheets; the raging billows rise,


s: And mount the tossing vessels to the skies:


s: Nor can the shiv'ring oars sustain the blow;


s: The galley gives her side, and turns her prow;


s: While those astern, descending down the steep,


s: Thro' gaping waves behold the boiling deep.


s: Three ships were hurried by the southern blast,


s: And on the secret shelves with fury cast.


s: Those hidden rocks th' Ausonian sailors knew:


s: They call'd them Altars, when they rose in view,


s: And show'd their spacious backs above the flood.


s: Three more fierce Eurus, in his angry mood,


s: Dash'd on the shallows of the moving sand,


s: And in mid ocean left them moor'd aland.


s: Orontes' bark, that bore the Lycian crew,


s: (A horrid sight!) ev'n in the hero's view,


s: From stem to stern by waves was overborne:


s: The trembling pilot, from his rudder torn,


s: Was headlong hurl'd; thrice round the ship was toss'd,


s: Then bulg'd at once, and in the deep was lost;


s: And here and there above the waves were seen


s: Arms, pictures, precious goods, and floating men.


s: The stoutest vessel to the storm gave way,


s: And suck'd thro' loosen'd planks the rushing sea.


s: Endur'd not less; their ships, with gaping seams,


s: Meantime imperial Neptune heard the sound


s: Of raging billows breaking on the ground.


s: Displeas'd, and fearing for his wat'ry reign,


s: He rear'd his awful head above the main,


s: Around the space of earth, and seas, and skies.


s: He saw the Trojan fleet dispers'd, distress'd,


s: By stormy winds and wintry heav'n oppress'd.


s: Full well the god his sister's envy knew,


s: And what her aims and what her arts pursue.


s: He summon'd Eurus and the western blast,


s: And first an angry glance on both he cast;


s: Then thus rebuk'd: "Audacious winds! from whence


s: This bold attempt, this rebel insolence?


s: To raise such mountains on the troubled main?


s: Whom I- but first 't is fit the billows to restrain;


s: And then you shall be taught obedience to my reign.


s: Hence! to your lord my royal mandate bear-


s: The realms of ocean and the fields of air


s: The liquid empire fell, and trident of the sea.


s: His pow'r to hollow caverns is confin'd:


s: There let him reign, the jailer of the wind,


s: With hoarse commands his breathing subjects call,


s: And boast and bluster in his empty hall."


s: He spoke; and, while he spoke, he smooth'd the sea,


s: Dispell'd the darkness, and restor'd the day.


s: Cymothoe, Triton, and the sea-green train


s: Of beauteous nymphs, the daughters of the main,


s: Clear from the rocks the vessels with their hands:


s: The god himself with ready trident stands,


s: And opes the deep, and spreads the moving sands;


s: Then heaves them off the shoals. Where'er he guides


s: His finny coursers and in triumph rides,


s: The waves unruffle and the sea subsides.


s: As, when in tumults rise th' ignoble crowd,


s: Mad are their motions, and their tongues are loud;


s: And stones and brands in rattling volleys fly,


s: And all the rustic arms that fury can supply:


s: If then some grave and pious man appear,


s: They hush their noise, and lend a list'ning ear;


s: He soothes with sober words their angry mood,


s: And quenches their innate desire of blood:


s: So, when the Father of the Flood appears,


s: And o'er the seas his sov'reign trident rears,


s: Their fury falls: he skims the liquid plains,


s: High on his chariot, and, with loosen'd reins,


s: Majestic moves along, and awful peace maintains.


s: The weary Trojans ply their shatter'd oars


s: To nearest land, and make the Libyan shores.


s: An island shades it from the rolling sea,


s: And forms a port secure for ships to ride;


s: Broke by the jutting land, on either side,


s: In double streams the briny waters glide.


s: Betwixt two rows of rocks a sylvan scene


s: Appears above, and groves for ever green:


s: A grot is form'd beneath, with mossy seats,


s: To rest the Nereids, and exclude the heats.


s: Down thro' the crannies of the living walls


s: The crystal streams descend in murm'ring falls:


s: No haulsers need to bind the vessels here,


s: Nor bearded anchors; for no storms they fear.


s: Sev'n ships within this happy harbor meet,


s: The thin remainders of the scatter'd fleet.


s: The Trojans, worn with toils, and spent with woes,


s: Leap on the welcome land, and seek their wish'd repose.


s: First, good Achates, with repeated strokes


s: Of clashing flints, their hidden fire provokes:


s: Short flame succeeds; a bed of wither'd leaves


s: The dying sparkles in their fall receives:


s: Caught into life, in fiery fumes they rise,


s: And, fed with stronger food, invade the skies.


s: The Trojans, dropping wet, or stand around


s: The cheerful blaze, or lie along the ground:


s: Some dry their corn, infected with the brine,


s: Then grind with marbles, and prepare to dine.


s: If Capys thence, or Antheus he could spy,


s: No vessels were in view; but, on the plain,


s: Three beamy stags command a lordly train


s: Of branching heads: the more ignoble throng


s: Attend their stately steps, and slowly graze along.


s: He stood; and, while secure they fed below,


s: He laid along, and then the vulgar pierc'd;


s: Nor ceas'd his arrows, till the shady plain


s: Sev'n mighty bodies with their blood distain.


s: For the sev'n ships he made an equal share,


s: And to the port return'd, triumphant from the war.


s: The jars of gen'rous wine (Acestes' gift,


s: When his Trinacrian shores the navy left)


s: He set abroach, and for the feast prepar'd,


s: In equal portions with the ven'son shar'd.


s: Thus while he dealt it round, the pious chief


s: With cheerful words allay'd the common grief:


s: "Endure, and conquer! Jove will soon dispose


s: To future good our past and present woes.


s: With me, the rocks of Scylla you have tried;


s: What greater ills hereafter can you bear?


s: Resume your courage and dismiss your care,


s: An hour will come, with pleasure to relate


s: Thro' various hazards and events, we move


s: To Latium and the realms foredoom'd by Jove.


s: Call'd to the seat (the promise of the skies)


s: Where Trojan kingdoms once again may rise,


s: Endure the hardships of your present state;


s: Live, and reserve yourselves for better fate."


s: These words he spoke, but spoke not from his heart;


s: His outward smiles conceal'd his inward smart.


s: The quarry share, their plenteous dinner haste.


s: Some strip the skin; some portion out the spoil;


s: The limbs, yet trembling, in the caldrons boil;


s: Some on the fire the reeking entrails broil.


s: Stretch'd on the grassy turf, at ease they dine,


s: Restore their strength with meat, and cheer their souls with


s: Their hunger thus appeas'd, their care attends


s: The doubtful fortune of their absent friends:


s: Alternate hopes and fears their minds possess,


s: Whether to deem 'em dead, or in distress.


s: Of brave Orontes, and th' uncertain state


s: The day, but not their sorrows, ended thus.


s: Earth, air, and shores, and navigable seas,


s: At length on Libyan realms he fix'd his eyes-


s: Not free from tears, her heav'nly sire bespoke:


s: "O King of Gods and Men! whose awful hand


s: How could my pious son thy pow'r incense?


s: Or what, alas! is vanish'd Troy's offense?


s: On various seas by various tempests toss'd,


s: But shut from ev'ry shore, and barr'd from ev'ry coast.


s: In after times should hold the world in awe,


s: How is your doom revers'd, which eas'd my care


s: Then fates to fates I could oppose; but now,


s: When Fortune still pursues her former blow,


s: What can I hope? What worse can still succeed?


s: What end of labors has your will decreed?


s: Antenor, from the midst of Grecian hosts,


s: Could pass secure, and pierce th' Illyrian coasts,


s: Where, rolling down the steep, Timavus raves


s: And thro' nine channels disembogues his waves.


s: At length he founded Padua's happy seat,


s: There fix'd their arms, and there renew'd their name,


s: And there in quiet rules, and crown'd with fame.


s: But we, descended from your sacred line,


s: Entitled to your heav'n and rites divine,


s: Are banish'd earth; and, for the wrath of one,


s: Remov'd from Latium and the promis'd throne.


s: Are these our scepters? these our due rewards?


s: And is it thus that Jove his plighted faith regards?"


s: To whom the Father of th' immortal race,


s: Smiling with that serene indulgent face,


s: With which he drives the clouds and clears the skies,


s: First gave a holy kiss; then thus replies:


s: "Daughter, dismiss thy fears; to thy desire


s: The fates of thine are fix'd, and stand entire.


s: Thou shalt behold thy wish'd Lavinian walls;


s: And, ripe for heav'n, when fate Aeneas calls,


s: Then shalt thou bear him up, sublime, to me:


s: No councils have revers'd my firm decree.


s: And, lest new fears disturb thy happy state,


s: Know, I have search'd the mystic rolls of Fate:


s: Thy son (nor is th' appointed season far)


s: Shall tame fierce nations in the bloody field,


s: And sov'reign laws impose, and cities build,


s: Thrice thro' the signs his annual race shall run:


s: This is his time prefix'd. Ascanius then,


s: Now call'd Iulus, shall begin his reign.


s: He thirty rolling years the crown shall wear,


s: Then from Lavinium shall the seat transfer,


s: The throne with his succession shall be fill'd


s: Three hundred circuits more: then shall be seen


s: Who, full of Mars, in time, with kindly throes,


s: Shall at a birth two goodly boys disclose.


s: The royal babes a tawny wolf shall drain:


s: Then Romulus his grandsire's throne shall gain,


s: Of martial tow'rs the founder shall become,


s: Nor term of years to their immortal line.


s: Ev'n haughty Juno, who, with endless broils,


s: Earth, seas, and heav'n, and Jove himself turmoils;


s: At length aton'd, her friendly pow'r shall join,


s: The subject world shall Rome's dominion own,


s: And, prostrate, shall adore the nation of the gown.


s: When Troy shall overturn the Grecian state,


s: And sweet revenge her conqu'ring sons shall call,


s: To crush the people that conspir'd her fall.


s: Then Caesar from the Julian stock shall rise,


s: Whose empire ocean, and whose fame the skies


s: Alone shall bound; whom, fraught with eastern spoils,


s: Our heav'n, the just reward of human toils,


s: And incense shall ascend before his sacred shrine.


s: Then dire debate and impious war shall cease,


s: And the stern age be soften'd into peace:


s: Then banish'd Faith shall once again return,


s: And Vestal fires in hallow'd temples burn;


s: The righteous laws, and fraud and force restrain.


s: Janus himself before his fane shall wait,


s: And keep the dreadful issues of his gate,


s: With bolts and iron bars: within remains


s: Imprison'd Fury, bound in brazen chains;


s: High on a trophy rais'd, of useless arms,


s: He sits, and threats the world with vain alarms."


s: He said, and sent Cyllenius with command


s: To free the ports, and ope the Punic land


s: To Trojan guests; lest, ignorant of fate,


s: The queen might force them from her town and state.


s: Down from the steep of heav'n Cyllenius flies,


s: And cleaves with all his wings the yielding skies.


s: Soon on the Libyan shore descends the god,


s: Performs his message, and displays his rod:


s: And, as the fates requir'd, they give the peace:


s: The queen herself suspends the rigid laws,


s: The Trojans pities, and protects their cause.


s: Meantime, in shades of night Aeneas lies:


s: Care seiz'd his soul, and sleep forsook his eyes.


s: But, when the sun restor'd the cheerful day,


s: He rose, the coast and country to survey,


s: Possess'd the new-found region, was unknown.


s: Beneath a ledge of rocks his fleet he hides:


s: Tall trees surround the mountain's shady sides;


s: The bending brow above a safe retreat provides.


s: Arm'd with two pointed darts, he leaves his friends,


s: Before his eyes his goddess mother stood:


s: Her dress a maid, her air confess'd a queen.


s: Bare were her knees, and knots her garments bind;


s: Loose was her hair, and wanton'd in the wind;


s: Her hand sustain'd a bow; her quiver hung behind.


s: She seem'd a virgin of the Spartan blood:


s: Her Thracian courser and outstripp'd the rapid flood.


s: "Ho, strangers! have you lately seen," she said,


s: "One of my sisters, like myself array'd,


s: Who cross'd the lawn, or in the forest stray'd?


s: Varied with spots, a lynx's hide she wore;


s: And at full cry pursued the tusky boar."


s: "None of your sisters have we heard or seen,


s: Above that style- O more than mortal fair!


s: Your voice and mien celestial birth betray!


s: Or one at least of chaste Diana's train,


s: Let not an humble suppliant sue in vain;


s: But tell a stranger, long in tempests toss'd,


s: What earth we tread, and who commands the coast?


s: Then on your name shall wretched mortals call,


s: And offer'd victims at your altars fall."


s: "I dare not," she replied, "assume the name


s: For Tyrian virgins bows and quivers bear,


s: And purple buskins o'er their ankles wear.


s: Know, gentle youth, in Libyan lands you are-


s: A people rude in peace, and rough in war.


s: The rising city, which from far you see,


s: Phoenician Dido rules the growing state,


s: Who fled from Tyre, to shun her brother's hate.


s: Great were her wrongs, her story full of fate;


s: Which I will sum in short. Sichaeus, known


s: For wealth, and brother to the Punic throne,


s: Possess'd fair Dido's bed; and either heart


s: Her father gave her, yet a spotless maid;


s: Pygmalion then the Tyrian scepter sway'd:


s: One who condemn'd divine and human laws.


s: Then strife ensued, and cursed gold the cause.


s: The monarch, blinded with desire of wealth,


s: With steel invades his brother's life by stealth;


s: And long from her conceal'd the cruel deed.


s: Some tale, some new pretense, he daily coin'd,


s: To soothe his sister, and delude her mind.


s: At length, in dead of night, the ghost appears


s: Of her unhappy lord: the specter stares,


s: And, with erected eyes, his bloody bosom bares.


s: And the dire secret of his house reveals,


s: Then warns the widow, with her household gods,


s: He shows her where his hidden treasure lay.


s: Admonish'd thus, and seiz'd with mortal fright,


s: The queen provides companions of her flight:


s: They meet, and all combine to leave the state,


s: Who hate the tyrant, or who fear his hate.


s: They seize a fleet, which ready rigg'd they find;


s: Nor is Pygmalion's treasure left behind.


s: With prosp'rous winds; a woman leads the way.


s: I know not, if by stress of weather driv'n,


s: Or was their fatal course dispos'd by Heav'n;


s: At last they landed, where from far your eyes


s: May view the turrets of new Carthage rise;


s: There bought a space of ground, which (Byrsa call'd,


s: From the bull's hide) they first inclos'd, and wall'd.


s: But whence are you? what country claims your birth?


s: What seek you, strangers, on our Libyan earth?"


s: To whom, with sorrow streaming from his eyes,


s: And deeply sighing, thus her son replies:


s: "Could you with patience hear, or I relate,


s: O nymph, the tedious annals of our fate!


s: Thro' such a train of woes if I should run,


s: The day would sooner than the tale be done!


s: From ancient Troy, by force expell'd, we came-


s: If you by chance have heard the Trojan name.


s: On various seas by various tempests toss'd,


s: At length we landed on your Libyan coast.


s: While Fortune favor'd, not unknown to fame.


s: My household gods, companions of my woes,


s: With pious care I rescued from our foes.


s: And from the King of Heav'n is my descent.


s: With twice ten sail I cross'd the Phrygian sea;


s: Scarce sev'n, the thin remainders of my fleet,


s: From storms preserv'd, within your harbor meet.


s: Myself distress'd, an exile, and unknown,


s: Debarr'd from Europe, and from Asia thrown,


s: But, interposing, sought to soothe his care.


s: "Whoe'er you are- not unbelov'd by Heav'n,


s: Since on our friendly shore your ships are driv'n-


s: Have courage: to the gods permit the rest,


s: And to the queen expose your just request.


s: Now take this earnest of success, for more:


s: Your scatter'd fleet is join'd upon the shore;


s: The winds are chang'd, your friends from danger free;


s: Twelve swans behold in beauteous order move,


s: And stoop with closing pinions from above;


s: Whom late the bird of Jove had driv'n along,


s: And thro' the clouds pursued the scatt'ring throng:


s: They skim the ground, and seek the quiet stream.


s: As they, with joy returning, clap their wings,


s: And ride the circuit of the skies in rings;


s: Not otherwise your ships, and ev'ry friend,


s: Already hold the port, or with swift sails descend.


s: The path before you, and the town in view."


s: Thus having said, she turn'd, and made appear


s: Her neck refulgent, and dishevel'd hair,


s: Which, flowing from her shoulders, reach'd the ground.


s: And widely spread ambrosial scents around:


s: In length of train descends her sweeping gown;


s: And, by her graceful walk, the Queen of Love is known.


s: With words like these: "Ah! whither do you fly?


s: In borrow'd shapes, and his embrace to shun;


s: Never to bless my sight, but thus unknown;


s: And still to speak in accents not your own."


s: Against the goddess these complaints he made,


s: But took the path, and her commands obey'd.


s: They march, obscure; for Venus kindly shrouds


s: With mists their persons, and involves in clouds,


s: That, thus unseen, their passage none might stay,


s: Or force to tell the causes of their way.


s: This part perform'd, the goddess flies sublime


s: Where garlands, ever green and ever fair,


s: With vows are offer'd, and with solemn pray'r:


s: A thousand bleeding hearts her pow'r invoke.


s: They climb the next ascent, and, looking down,


s: The prince with wonder sees the stately tow'rs,


s: Which late were huts and shepherds' homely bow'rs,


s: The gates and streets; and hears, from ev'ry part,


s: The noise and busy concourse of the mart.


s: To ply their labor: some extend the wall;


s: Some build the citadel; the brawny throng


s: Some for their dwellings choose a spot of ground,


s: Which, first design'd, with ditches they surround.


s: Some laws ordain; and some attend the choice


s: Here some design a mole, while others there


s: From marble quarries mighty columns hew,


s: For ornaments of scenes, and future view.