Poems

Poems List

Explore poems from our collection

Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

Outside

Outside


I want to be lighting my pipe on deck,
With my baggage safe below—
I want to be free of the crowded quay,
While the steamer’s swingin…

270
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

Past Carin'

Past Carin'

Now up and down the siding brown
The great black crows are flyin',

And down below the spur, I know,
Another `milker's' dyin';

366
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

Outback

Outback


The old year went, and the new returned, in the withering weeks of drought,
The cheque was spent that the shearer earned,
and the sheds wer…

297
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

Out Back

Out Back

The old year went, and the new returned, in the withering weeks of drought,
The cheque was spent that the shearer earned,
and the sheds were all…

254
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

Otherside

Otherside


Somewhere in the mystic future, on the road to Paradise,
There’s a very pleasant country that I’ve dreamed of once or twice,
It has inlan…

278
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

One Hundred and Three

One Hundred and Three

With the frame of a man, and the face of a boy, and a manner strangely wild,
And the great, wide, wondering, innocent eyes of a silent-su…

246
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

On the March

On the March

So the time seems come at last,
And the drums go rolling past,
And above them in the sunlight Labour's banners float and flow;
They ar…

272
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

On the Summit of Mt. Clarence

On the Summit of Mt. Clarence

On the summit of Mount Clarence rotting slowly in the air
Stands a tall and naked flagstaff, relic of the Russian scare—
Ru…

265
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

Old North Sydney

Old North Sydney

They're shifting old North Sydney—
Perhaps ’tis just as well—
They’re carting off the houses
Where the old folks used to dwell.

293
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

Old Tunes

Old Tunes

When friends are listening round me, Jack, to hear my dying breath,
And I am lying in a sleep they say will end in death,
Don’t notice what the…

260
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

Next Door

Next Door

Whenever I’m moving my furniture in
Or shifting my furniture out—
Which is nearly as often and risky as Sin
In these days of shifting abo…

326
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

O Cupid, Cupid; Get Your Bow!

O Cupid, Cupid; Get Your Bow!

Arming down along the stream,
Along the sparkling water,
And past the pool where lilies gleam,
There comes the squatt…

320
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

Ned’s Delicate Way

Ned’s Delicate Way

Ned knew I was short of tobacco one day,
And that I was too proud to ask for it;
He hated such pride, but his delicate way
Forba…

208
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

Never, Never Land

Never, Never Land

By hut, homestead and shearing shed,
By railroad, coach and track-
By lonely graves where rest the dead,
Up-Country and Out-Back: …

209
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

My Literary Friend

My Literary Friend

Once I wrote a little poem which I thought was very fine,
And I showed the printer’s copy to a critic friend of mine,
First he praised…

255
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

My Father-in-Law and I

My Father-in-Law and I

MY father-in-law is a careworn man,
And a silent man is he;
But he summons a smile as well as he can
Whenever he meets with …

309
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

Mount Bukaroo

Mount Bukaroo

Only one old post is standing -Solid
yet, but only one --
Where the milking, and the branding,
And the slaughtering were done.
L…

246
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

Middleton's Rouseabout

Middleton's Rouseabout

Tall and freckled and sandy,
Face of a country lout;
This was the picture of Andy,
Middleton's Rouseabout.

Type …

298
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

Macleay Street and Red Rock Lane

Macleay Street and Red Rock Lane

Macleay Street looks to Mosman,
Across the other side,
With brave asphalted pavements
And roadway clean and wide. …

203
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

Mary Called Him 'Mister'

Mary Called Him 'Mister'

They'd parted but a year before—she never thought he’d come,
She stammer’d, blushed, held out her hand, and called him ‘Mister Gum.’ <…

279
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

Laughing and Sneering

Laughing and Sneering

WHAT tho' the world does me ill turns
And cares my life environ;
I’d sooner laugh with Bobbie Burns
Than sneer with titl'd By…

269
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

Let’s Be Fools To-Night

Let’s Be Fools To-Night

We, three men of commerce,
Striving wealth to raise,
See but little promise
In the coming days;
Though our hearts are…

235
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

Knocked Up

Knocked Up

I'm lyin' on the barren ground that's baked and cracked with drought,
And dunno if my legs or back or heart is most wore out;
I've got no spir…

251
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson

Lachlan Side

Lachlan Side

REGION of damper and junk and tea,
Region of pastures wide!
The fairest spots in the world to me
Are out on the Lachlan Side.

226