The Shearer's Last Farewell (1899)
What was that I heard you saying--
Did you say that I must die ?
Dying, with the spring around me !
You are crying. Tell me why ?
Charlie, raise me up a little,
Just to see the closing day,
For the world it seems so lovely
Now that I am called away.
It was never yet more dearly
Did I love the coming spring ;
It was never yet more sweetly
Did I hear the wild birds sing.
Never were the downs so verdant.
And the flowers so beautiful ;
Never seemed the trees so shady,
And the water slope so cool
Far away across the ranges
Is the home I left behind,
Where my dear ones all all waiting
That I may a welcome find.
Let me look into the distance--
Out across the misty plain.
I shall never see my mother.
And my happy home again.
There is one Sweet maid will miss me--
Charlie, I have loved her dear.
I would fain again behold her,
Now the end is drawing near.
I was very foolish Charlie,
To have left my peaceful home ;
And I little knew the sorrow
That in aftertime would come.
Ah ! they'll never see me riding
O'er the old familiar range ;
Fur my life is ebbing slowly,
And the world is growing strange.
Charlie, raise my head a little--
Let me see the dying day.
Ail the world is fading from me,
Fading--fading all away.
W. F. STENZ.
Reedy Creek, 7th Oct., 1899.
From the NSW Newspaper the Inverell Times 14 Oct 1899 p. 2.
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