We have heavy tidings, old dog, to-day;
There is sorrow come to us over the sea.
You know there was some one who loved me, Dick? ---
Some one who loved you because of me? ---
Ah, you know! --- By your wistful eyes on mine
And your tender touch upon my knee.
How long is it since I found you first
Footsore and forsaken, by Meela dam,
And carried you home --- you were lighter then ---
On the saddle like some young motherless lamb? ---
How long since the poley cow had me drowned,
All but, when straight for her throat you swam?
How long since you tracked for your new-chum mate
In the ranges, many a weary day.
The maiden ewes that Switzer Karl
In his full-moon madness hunted away ---
For 'twas you fetched the fifteen hundred back
With a scanty score for the dingo's prey.
Three years or four --- for the bumble-foot mare
Has three of a following, since we came
To the ten-mile hut together, old Dick.
And in winter glow of the gidya flame
And in summer shade of the moth-wing roof
The dream I have dreamed was the same --- the same.
I have seen forever a fair-haired girl
Whose troth was kept when none else were true,
Whose presence should gladden her one love's lot;
I have told it to you, Dick --- only you.
The dear brave letters she always sent! ---
You knew they were hers? Oh, surely you knew!
But this is not hers that I hold to-day.
She is dead and buried across the sea.
Yet somewhere she lives and she loves me, Dick;
And she loves you too --- because of me.
Ah, you understand --- by your eyes on mine
And your touch so tender upon my knee!
First published in The Queenslander, 24 March 1894
Author reference sites: Austlit, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Old Qld Poetry
See also.
There is sorrow come to us over the sea.
You know there was some one who loved me, Dick? ---
Some one who loved you because of me? ---
Ah, you know! --- By your wistful eyes on mine
And your tender touch upon my knee.
How long is it since I found you first
Footsore and forsaken, by Meela dam,
And carried you home --- you were lighter then ---
On the saddle like some young motherless lamb? ---
How long since the poley cow had me drowned,
All but, when straight for her throat you swam?
How long since you tracked for your new-chum mate
In the ranges, many a weary day.
The maiden ewes that Switzer Karl
In his full-moon madness hunted away ---
For 'twas you fetched the fifteen hundred back
With a scanty score for the dingo's prey.
Three years or four --- for the bumble-foot mare
Has three of a following, since we came
To the ten-mile hut together, old Dick.
And in winter glow of the gidya flame
And in summer shade of the moth-wing roof
The dream I have dreamed was the same --- the same.
I have seen forever a fair-haired girl
Whose troth was kept when none else were true,
Whose presence should gladden her one love's lot;
I have told it to you, Dick --- only you.
The dear brave letters she always sent! ---
You knew they were hers? Oh, surely you knew!
But this is not hers that I hold to-day.
She is dead and buried across the sea.
Yet somewhere she lives and she loves me, Dick;
And she loves you too --- because of me.
Ah, you understand --- by your eyes on mine
And your touch so tender upon my knee!
First published in The Queenslander, 24 March 1894
Author reference sites: Austlit, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Old Qld Poetry
See also.
