| Walter Murdoch (1874–1970). The Oxford Book of Australasian Verse. 1918. |
| |
| 173. The Shearer’s Wife |
| | | By Louis Esson |
| |
| |
| BEFORE the glare o’ dawn I rise | |
| To milk the sleepy cows, an’ shake | |
| The droving dust from tired eyes, | |
| Look round the rabbit traps, then bake | |
| The children’s bread. | 5 |
| There ’s hay to stook, an’ beans to hoe, | |
| An’ ferns to cut i’ th’ scrub below; | |
| Women must work, when men must go | |
| Shearing from shed to shed. | |
| |
| I patch an’ darn, now evening comes, | 10 |
| An’ tired I am with labour sore, | |
| Tired o’ the bush, the cows, the gums, | |
| Tired, but must dree for long months more | |
| What no tongue tells. | |
| The moon is lonely in the sky, | 15 |
| Lonely the bush, an’ lonely I | |
| Stare down the track no horse draws nigh | |
| An’ start…at the cattle bells. | |
| |
|
|
|
