Introductory material

To an Old Mate Old Mate! In the gusty old weather, In the Days When the World was Wide The world is narrow and ways are short, and our lives are dull and slow, [Dec. — 1894] Faces in the Street They lie, the men who tell us in a loud decisive tone [July — 1888] The Roaring Days The night too quickly passes [Dec. — 1889] 'For'ard' It is stuffy in the steerage where the second-classers sleep, [Dec. — 1893] The Drover's Sweetheart An hour before the sun goes down [June — 1891] Out Back The old year went, and the new returned, in the withering weeks of drought, [Sept. — 1893] The Free-Selector's Daughter I met her on the Lachlan Side — [May — 1891] 'Sez You' When the heavy sand is yielding backward from your blistered feet, [Mar. — 1894] Andy's Gone With Cattle Our Andy's gone to battle now [Oct. — 1888] Jack Dunn of Nevertire It chanced upon the very day we'd got the shearing done, [Aug. — 1892] Trooper Campbell One day old Trooper Campbell [Apr. — 1891] The Sliprails and the Spur The colours of the setting sun [July — 1899] Past Carin' Now up and down the siding brown [Aug. — 1899] The Glass on the Bar Three bushmen one morning rode up to an inn, [Apr. — 1890] The Shanty on the Rise When the caravans of wool-teams climbed the ranges from the West, [Dec. — 1891] The Vagabond White handkerchiefs wave from the short black pier [Aug. — 1895] Sweeney It was somewhere in September, and the sun was going down, [Dec. — 1893] Middleton's Rouseabout Tall and freckled and sandy, [Mar. — 1890] The Ballad of the Drover Across the stony ridges, [Mar. — 1889] Taking His Chance They stood by the door of the Inn on the Rise; [June — 1892] When the 'Army' Prays for Watty When the kindly hours of darkness, save for light of moon and star, [May — 1893] The Wreck of the 'Derry Castle' Day of ending for beginnings! [Dec. — 1887] Ben Duggan Jack Denver died on Talbragar when Christmas Eve began, [Dec. — 1891] The Star of Australasia We boast no more of our bloodless flag, that rose from a nation's slime; The Great Grey Plain Out West, where the stars are brightest, [Sept. — 1893] The Song of Old Joe Swallow When I was up the country in the rough and early days, [May — 1890] Corny Bill His old clay pipe stuck in his mouth, [May — 1892] Cherry-Tree Inn The rafters are open to sun, moon, and star, Up the Country I am back from up the country — very sorry that I went — [July — 1892] Knocked Up I'm lyin' on the barren ground that's baked and cracked with drought, [Aug. — 1893] The Blue Mountains Above the ashes straight and tall, [Dec. — 1888] The City Bushman It was pleasant up the country, City Bushman, where you went, [Aug. — 1892] Eurunderee There are scenes in the distance where beauty is not, [Aug. — 1891] Mount Bukaroo Only one old post is standing — [Dec. — 1889] The Fire at Ross's Farm The squatter saw his pastures wide [Apr. — 1891] The Teams A cloud of dust on the long white road, [Dec. — 1889] Cameron's Heart The diggings were just in their glory when Alister Cameron came, [July — 1891] The Shame of Going Back When you've come to make a fortune and you haven't made your salt, [Oct. — 1891] Since Then I met Jack Ellis in town to-day — [Nov. — 1895] Peter Anderson and Co. He had offices in Sydney, not so many years ago, [Aug. — 1895] When the Children Come Home On a lonely selection far out in the West [Dec. — 1890] Dan, the Wreck Tall, and stout, and solid-looking, A Prouder Man Than You If you fancy that your people came of better stock than mine, [June — 1892] The Song and the Sigh The creek went down with a broken song, [Mar. — 1889] The Cambaroora Star So you're writing for a paper? Well, it's nothing very new [Dec. — 1891] After All The brooding ghosts of Australian night have gone from the bush and town; Marshall's Mate You almost heard the surface bake, and saw the gum-leaves turn — [July — 1895] The Poets of the Tomb The world has had enough of bards who wish that they were dead, [Oct. — 1892] Australian Bards and Bush Reviewers While you use your best endeavour to immortalise in verse [Feb. — 1894] The Ghost Down the street as I was drifting with the city's human tide, [Aug. — 1889]