The battlefield behind us, And night loomed on the track; The Friends of Fallen Fortunes Were riding at my back. Save those who lay face upward Upon the sodden plain, Not one of all I'd trusted...
The brown eyes came from Asia, where all mystery is true, Ere the masters of Soul Secrets dreamed of hazel, grey, and blue; And the Brown Eyes came to Egypt, which is called the gypsies' home,...
The gentlemen of Dickens Were mostly very poor, And innocent of grammar, And of parentage obscure; But rich or poor or thriving, Of high or lowly birth, The gentlemen of Dickens...
Down the street as I was drifting with the city's human tide, Came a ghost, and for a moment walked in silence by my side, Now my heart was hard and bitter, and a bitter spirit he,...
You'd call the man a senseless fool, A blockhead or an ass, Who'd dare to say he saw the ghost Of Mount Victoria Pass; But I believe the ghost is there, For, if my eyes are right,...
Three bushmen one morning rode up to an inn, And one of them called for the drinks with a grin; They'd only returned from a trip to the North, And, eager to greet them, the landlord came forth....
PAT M'DURMER brought the tidings to the town of God-Forgotten : 'There are lively days before ye, commin Parlymint's dissolved!' And the boys were all excited, for the State, of course, was 'rotten,'...
'Twas merry when the hut was full Of jolly girls and fellows. We danced and sang until we burst The concertina's bellows. From distant Darling to the sea, From the Downs to Riverina,...
He comes from out the ages dim, The good Samaritan; I somehow never pictured him A fat and jolly man; But one who'd little joy to glean, And little coin to give, A sad-faced man, and lank and lean,...
Out West, where the stars are brightest, Where the scorching north wind blows, And the bones of the dead gleam whitest, And the sun on a desert glows, Yet within the selfish kingdom...
Call this hot? I beg your pardon. Hot!, you don't know what it means. (What's that, waiter? lamb or mutton! Thank you, mine is beef and greens. Bread and butter while I'm waiting. Milk? Oh, yes, a bucketful.)...
'Twixt the coastline and the border lay the town of Grog-an'-Grumble In the days before the bushman was a dull 'n' heartless drudge, An' they say the local meeting was a drunken rough-and-tumble,...
When the wars of the world seemed ended, and silent the distant drum, Ten years ago in Australia, I wrote of a war to come: And I pictured Australians fighting as their fathers fought of old...
Oh, the track through the scrub groweth ever more dreary, And lower and lower his grey head doth bow; For the swagman is old and the swagman is weary, He's been tramping for over a century now....
It was old Jerry Brown, Who'd an office in town, And he used to get jocular, very; And he'd go to the Shore When they'd serve him no more, And, of course, by the passenger ferry,...
By the bodies and minds and souls that rot in a common stye In the city's offal-holes, where the dregs of its horrors lie, By the prayers that bubble out, but never ascend to God,...
The Blue Sky arches o'er mountain and valley, The scene is as fair as a scene can be, But I'm breaking my heart for a London alley, And fogs that shall never come back to me....
In these days of peace and money, free to all the Commonweal, There are ancient dames in Buckland wearing wedding rings of steel; Wedding rings of steel and iron, worn on wrinkled hands and old,...
If I ever be worthy or famous, Which I'm sadly beginning to doubt, When the angel whose place 'tis to name us Shall say to my spirit, 'Pass out!' I wish for no sniv'lling about me...
Among the sons of Englishmen Full many feel like real tears, For, though he reigned but scarcely ten, He bore the burden many years. He lived the dead past doubly down,...