Vonda Stanley's collection of early Australian bush poems

 

When Stock Go By

 

 

Ah me!  How clearly they come back -

Those golden days of long ago,

When down the droughty Bogan track

Tom came with stock from Ivanhoe.

The cattle passed our hometead gate,

Beside our well I watched them pass,

While Dad was in a fearful state

About his water and his grass.

Tom rode a bonny dark haired nagg;

He wore a battered cabbage-tree;

And as I filled our water-bag,

He came and asked a drink from me.

Tom said that drink was just like wine;

He said my eyes were soft and brown;

He said there were no eyes like mine

From Dandaloo to Sydney Town.

I watched him with a trembling lip,

Yet little thought I then that he

Who asked a drink from me that trip,

Would next trip ask my Dad for me!

Tom's droving days long since are done;

The wet tear oft has dimmed his eye;

For days when I was wood and won

Come back to me - when stock go by.

 

Harry Morant ('The Breaker')  

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