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....
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,...
He is coming! He is coming! without heralds, without cheers. He is coming! He is coming! and he's been with us for years: And, if you should pause to wonder who's the man of whom I sing,...
The Lady of the Motor-car she stareth straight ahead; Her face is like the stone, my friend, her face is like the dead; Her face is like the stone, my friend, because she is 'well-bred',...
Light on the towns and cities, and peace for evermore! The Big Five met in the world's light as many had met before, And the future of man is settled and there shall be no more war. ...
In the days that will be olden after many years are gone, Ere the world emerged from darkness floating out into the dawn, On a mountain rising steeply from the depth of marsh and wood...
Out there by the rocks, at the end of the bank, In the mouth of the river, the Wanderer sank. She is resting where meet the blue water and green, And only her masts and her funnel are seen;...
Fire lighted; on the table a meal for sleepy men; A lantern in the stable; a jingle now and then; The mail-coach looming darkly by light on moon and star; The growl of sleepy voices; a candle in the bar;...
Are you coming, Ivan, coming?, Ah, the ways are long and slow, In the vast land that we know not, and we never sought to know. We are watching through the daybreak, when the anxious night is done,...
It was built of bark and poles, and the floor was full of holes Where each leak in rainy weather made a pool; And the walls were mostly cracks lined with calico and sacks,...
The old Jimmy Woodser comes into the bar Unwelcomed, unnoticed, unknown, Too old and too odd to be drunk with, by far; So he glides to the end where the lunch baskets are And they say that he tipples alone....
Old coach-road West by Nor'-ward, Old mile-tree by the track: A dead branch pointing forward, And a dead branch pointing back. And still in clear-cut romans On his hard heart he tells...
They proved we could not think nor see, They proved we could not write, They proved we drank the day away And raved through half the night. They proved our stars were never up,...
Wrap me up in me stockwhip and blanket, And bury me deep down below, Where this piffle and sham won't disgust me, In the land where the coolibahs grow; For I've stayed with some well-to-do people,...
We throw us down on the dusty plain When the gold has gone from the west, But we rise and tramp on the track again, For we're tired, too tired to rest. Darker and denser the shadows fall...
When first I came to town, resolved To fight my way alone, No prouder foot than mine e'er trod Upon the pavement stone; But I am one in thousands, And why should I repine?...