To Home, Sweet Home, and the dear ones or may be some sweet lass?
How gay is the motion and clatter,
The whole world seems to smile,
As ever varying scenery flies past you mile by mile.
The distant views seem to race you, while the nearer ones romp past
Like folk in a country barn dance when the merry tune is fast.
How your spirits rise with the speed, then droop when it slackens down.
And impatient thoughts possess you when stopped at some wayside town,
Where you worry, fuss and fidget and call on the Fates to send
Some special power to hasten your train unto its journey's end.
Till relief comes with the whistle, when the green flag starts to wave.
And your joy in life rekindles like a soul snatched from the grave.
But when your leave is over and you're travelling back again.
The throb of the wheels and engine is singing a new refrain;
A dreary dirge of No Man's Land, where the flying bullets hum
Grim warnings of what may happen quite soon or in days to come.
Though this fails to hold your interest and the landscape fades from mind
As your thoughts revert to the gay times and people left behind. T.R.F.A., East Dalwallinu. Notes
From the Western Australian Newspaper The Western Mail 9 Jun 1938 p. 2.
Composed in 1938 just before the beginning of World War 2 "The Leave Train" expresses the uncertainty and edginess of the times.
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