Poems List

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Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

Up The Country

Up The Country

I am back from up the country -- very sorry that I went --
Seeking for the Southern poets' land whereon to pitch my tent;
I have lo…

210
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

Untitled

Untitled


When his heart is growing bitter and his hair is growing grey,
And he hears the debt-collector knocking several times a day,
And…

257
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

To-Morrow

To-Morrow


When you’re suffering hard for your sins, old man,
When you wake to trouble and sleep ill—
Oh, this is the clack of the middle …

244
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

Trouble on the Selection

Trouble on the Selection

You lazy boy, you’re here at last,
You must be wooden-legged;
Now, are you sure the gate is fast
And all the sli…

215
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

To Tom Bracken

To Tom Bracken

O had you tracked where Kendall* trod
I think you would be kneelin’
Three times a week and thankin’ God
That you are of Ne…

280
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

To Show What a Man Can Do

To Show What a Man Can Do

There has been many a grander deed since man had life to give,
And thousands have gone to certain death, eyes open, that men mi…

232
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

To My Friends

To My Friends

These are songs of the Friends I neglected—
And the Foes, too, in part;
These are songs that were mostly rejected—
And song…

196
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

To Jack

To Jack

SO, I’ve battled it through on my own, Jack,
I have done with all dreaming and doubt.
Though “stoney” to-night and alone, Jack,
I…

232
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

To Be Amused

To Be Amused

You ask me to be gay and glad
While lurid clouds of danger loom,
And vain and bad and gambling mad,
Australia races to her d…

256
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

To a Pair of Blucher Boots

To a Pair of Blucher Boots

OLD acquaintance unforgotten,
Though you may be “ugly brutes”—
Though your leather’s cracked and rotten,
Worn-…

238
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

Till All the Bad Things Came Untrue

Till All the Bad Things Came Untrue

BY blacksoil plains burned grey with drought
Where desert shrubs and grasses grow,
Along the Land of Furthest…

197
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

They Can Only Drag You Down

They Can Only Drag You Down

Leader, poet, singer, artist, who have struggled long and won,
Though the climbing is behind you, now the battle has begun, <…

197
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

The Women of the Town

The Women of the Town

It is up from out the alleys, from the alleys dark and vile—
It is up from out the alleys I have struggled for a while—
Jus…

244
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

The Wreck Of The `Derry Castle'

The Wreck Of The `Derry Castle'

Day of ending for beginnings!
Ocean hath another innings,

Ocean hath another score;
And the surge…

195
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

The Way of the World

The Way of the World

When fairer faces turn from me,
And gayer friends grow cold,
And I have lost through poverty
The friendship bought w…

255
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

The Waving of the Red

The Waving of the Red

It is a sad and cruel fate the country’s coming to,
And there’s no use in striking, ‘so what are we to do?’
“I know what we…

240
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

The Water Lily

The Water Lily

A lonely young wife
In her dreaming discerns
A lily-decked pool
With a border of ferns,
And a beautiful child,

264
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

The Watch on the Kerb

The Watch on the Kerb

Night-Lights are falling;
Girl of the street,
Go to your calling
If you would eat.
Lamplight and starlight …

240
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

The Voice from Over Yonder

The Voice from Over Yonder

“Did she care as much as I did
When our paths of Fate divided?
Was the love, then, all onesided—
Did she under…

278
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

The Wander-Light

The Wander-Light

And they heard the tent-poles clatter,
And the fly in twain was torn –
'Tis the soiled rag of a tatter
Of the tent where…

276
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

The Unknown God

The Unknown God

The President to Kingdoms,
As in the Days of Old;
The King to the Republic,
As it had been foretold.
They could n…

216
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

The Vanguard [1]

The Vanguard [1]

While the crippled cruisers stagger where the blind horizon dips,
And the ocean ooze is rising round the sunken battle-ships,
Wh…

260
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

The Two Samaritans and the Tramp

The Two Samaritans and the Tramp

A TRAMP was trampin’ on the road—
The afternoon was warm an’ muggy—
And by-and-by he chanced to meet
A p…

257
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

The Triumph of the People

The Triumph of the People

LO, the gods of Vice and Mammon from their pinnacles are hurled
By the workers’ new religion, which is oldest in the world;

285