In the Days When the World was Wide and Other Verses (2 ed.) by Henry Lawson [Australian house-painter, author and poet -- 1867-1922.]

[Note on text: Italicized stanzas will be indented 5 spaces. Italicized stanzas that are ALREADY indented will be indented 10 spaces. Italicized words and phrases have been capitalized. Lines longer than 75 characters have been broken according to metre, and the continuation is indented two spaces. Also, some obvious errors, after being confirmed against other sources, have been corrected. This etext was prepared from a 1913 printing.]

[Note on content: Banjo Paterson and Henry Lawson were writing for the Sydney 'Bulletin' in 1892 when Lawson suggested a 'duel' of poetry to increase the number of poems they could sell to the paper. It was apparently entered into in all fun, though there are reports that Lawson was bitter about it later. 'Up the Country' and 'The City Bushman', included in this selection, were two of Lawson's contributions to the debate. Please note that this is the revised edition of 1900. Therefore, even though this book was originally published in 1896, it includes two poems not published until 1899 ('The Sliprails and the Spur' and 'Past Carin'').]

First Edition printed February 1896, Reprinted August 1896, October 1896, March 1898, and November 1898;

Revised Edition, January 1900; Reprinted May 1903, February 1910, June 1912, and July 1913.

Preface

Most of the verses contained in this volume were first published in the Sydney 'Bulletin'; others in the Brisbane 'Boomerang', Sydney 'Freeman's Journal', 'Town and Country Journal', 'Worker', and 'New Zealand Mail', whose editors and proprietors I desire to thank for past kindnesses and for present courtesy in granting me the right of reproduction in book form.

'In the Days When the World was Wide' was written in Maoriland and some of the other verses in Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia.

The dates of original publication are given in the Table of Contents. Those undated are now printed for the first time.

HENRY LAWSON.

To J. F. Archibald

To an Old Mate

Old Mate! In the gusty old weather, When our hopes and our troubles were new, In the years spent in wearing out leather, I found you unselfish and true -- I have gathered these verses together For the sake of our friendship and you.

You may think for awhile, and with reason, Though still with a kindly regret, That I've left it full late in the season To prove I remember you yet; But you'll never judge me by their treason Who profit by friends -- and forget.

I remember, Old Man, I remember -- The tracks that we followed are clear -- The jovial last nights of December, The solemn first days of the year, Long tramps through the clearings and timber, Short partings on platform and pier.

I can still feel the spirit that bore us, And often the old stars will shine -- I remember the last spree in chorus For the sake of that other Lang Syne, When the tracks lay divided before us, Your path through the future and mine.

Through the frost-wind that cut like whip-lashes, Through the ever-blind haze of the drought -- And in fancy at times by the flashes Of light in the darkness of doubt -- I have followed the tent poles and ashes Of camps that we moved further out.

You will find in these pages a trace of That side of our past which was bright, And recognise sometimes the face of A friend who has dropped out of sight -- I send them along in the place of The letters I promised to write.

Contents

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]