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As I rode in the early dawn,
   While stars were fading white,
I saw upon a grassy slope
   A camp-fire burning bright,
With tent behind and blaze before,
   Three loggers in a row
Sang altogether joyously ---
   Pull up the stakes and go!

         Pull up the stakes and go,
         The world is free, and so are we,
         Pull up the stakes and go.

As I rode on by Eagle Hawk,
   The wide blue deep of air,
The wind among the glittering leaves,
   The flowers so sweet and fair,
The thunder of the rude salt waves,
   The creek's soft overflow,
All joined in chorus to the words --
   Pull up the stakes and go!

Now by the tent on forest skirt,
   By odor of the earth,
By sight and scent of morning smoke,
   By evening camp-fire's mirth,
By deep-sea call and foaming green,
   By new stars' gleam and glow,
By summer trails in antique lands --
   Pull up the stakes and go!

The world is wide, and we are young,
   And sounding marches beat,
And passion pipes her sweetest call,
   In lane, and field, and street;
So rouse the chorus, brothers all,
   We'll something have to show
When Death comes round and strikes our tent --
   Pull up the stakes and go.

         Pull up the stakes and go,
         The world is free, and so are we,
         Pull up the stakes and go.

First published in The Bulletin, 25 March 1899;
and later in
The Golden Treasury of Australian Verse edited by Bertram Stevens, 1909;
The Oxford Book of Australasian Verse edited by Walter Murdoch, 1918;
Selections from the Australian Poets edited by Bertram Stevens, 1925;
An Australasian Anthology: Australian and New Zealand Poems edited by Percival Serle, R.H. Croll and Frank Wilmot, 1927;
New Song in an Old Land edited by Rex Ingamells, 1943;
Australian Bush Songs and Ballads edited by Will Lawson, 1944;
Favourite Australian Poems edited by Ian Mudie, 1963;
Silence Into Song: An anthology of Australian Verse edited by Clifford O'Brien, 1968;
A Treasury of Colonial Poetry, 1968;
Effects of Light: The Poetry of Tasmania edited by Vivian Smith and Margaret Scott, 1985;
Australian Bush Poems, 1991;
An Australian Treasury of Popular Verse edited by Jim Haynes, 2002; and
River of Verse: A Tasmanian Journey 1800-1924 edited by Helen Gee, 2004.

Author reference sites: Austlit, Australian Dictionary of Bibliography

See also.

Note: the "Eagle Hawk" mentioned in the poem refers to Eagle Hawk Neck in Tasmania, rather than "Eaglehawk" near Bendigo in Victoria.

Three men stood with their glasses lifted
   Night was around them and flaring lamps: --
"Here's to the tried and true and sifted;
Here's to the flotsam tossed and drifted;
   Here's to the men in the Western Camps.

"Fill and drink (there is little drinking
   Night or day on the lonely track),
Mostly heroes are hourly sinking,
Mostly, vain in the firelight thinking,
   Gather the hearts of gold out back.

"Stars that fall are their lot forever;
   Lights that perish and stars that fall;
Fighting Fate with a brave heart ever --
Drifting leaves on a wayward river --
   Men for ever in spite of all.

"Here's to the gallant souls defeated;
   Here's to the heroes under-trod --
Hope-abandoned and mirage-cheated,
And, yet, by the right of their failure, seated
   Somewhere close to the feet of God.

"Here's to the heart that braves undaunted
   Toil and trouble for home and wife;
Here's to the fallen-spirit taunted;
Here's to the memory, sorrow-haunted;
   Here's to the soul grown sick of life.

"Drink to the man in the firelight sitting;
   Drink to his mistress of long ago;
Well --- 'twere well --- and the time were fitting,
If, in the shades of firelight flitting,
   She should come with her eyes aglow.

"Drink to the purpose, iron, oaken,
   Brought to nought by a woman's guile;
Drink to men with an old love-token
Somewhere -- close to their brave hearts broken;
   Drink to the martyred souls that smile.

"Drink to courage and all fine daring --
   Spirit trampling the flesh beneath;
Drink to the reckless heart uncaring;
Drink to mates at the last pinch sharing
   Their little all in the face of death.

"Last toast this . . . may their hearts discover,
   On every track that the outcast tramps,
A friend in need and at need a lover,
Good roads beneath them and kind stars over,
   And pleasant dreams in their Western Camps.

First published in The Bulletin, 23 March 1905

Author reference sites: Austlit, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Australian Poetry Library

See also.