Fall In My Men Fall In
The short hour's halt is ended,
The red gone from the west,
The broken wheel is mended,
And the dead men laid to rest.
Three days have we
The brave old Curse-and-Grin –Outnumbered and defeated –Fall in, my men, fall in.
Poor weary, hungry sinners,
Past caring and past fear,
The camp-fires of the
Are gleaming in the rear.
Each day their front advances,
Each day the same old din,
But freedom holds the chances –Fall in, my men, fall in.
Despair's cold fingers
The sky is black ahead,
We leave in barns and
Our wounded and our dead.
Through cold and rain and
And mire that clogs like sin,
In failure in its starkness –Fall in, my men, fall in.
We go and know not whither,
Nor see the tracks we go –A horseman gaunt shall tell us,
A rain-veiled light shall show.
By wood and swamp and mountain,
The long dark hours begin –Before our fresh wounds stiffen –Fall in, my men, fall in.
With old wounds dully aching –Fall in, my men, fall in –See yonder starlight
Through rifts where storm clouds thin!
See yonder clear sky
The distant range upon?
I'll plan while we are marching –Move on, my men - march on!
Henry Lawson
Другие работы автора
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 cut out; The publican's words were short and few, and the publican's looks were black — And ...
The Man from Waterloo With kind Regards to Banjo
It was the Man from Waterloo, When work in town was slack, Who took the track as bushmen do, And humped his swag out back He tramped for months without a bob, For most the sheds were full, Until at last he got a job At picking up th...
The Fire At Rosss Farm
The squatter saw his pastures wide Decrease, as one by one The farmers moving to the west Selected on his run; Selectors took the water up And all the black soil round; The best grass-land the squatter had Was spoilt by Ross's Ground<br ...
The Boss Over the Board
When he’s over a rough and unpopular shed, With the sins of the bank and the men on his head; When he musn’t look black or indulge in a grin, And thirty or forty men hate him like Sin—I am moved to admit—when the total is scored—Tha...