By M. Forest
A Carpenter is making shelves in the office next to mine,
'Tis sweet this February day that cool, clean breath of pine ;
And drowsily from far blue hills there comes to me again
The droning of the timber saw, its monotone refrain :--
"Twist and turn where cross knots twine,
Cutting lengths of fragrant pine ;
Twist and turn and whizzing round,
Cast my amber drift to ground."
Tap of hammer on the wall,
Clatter of a nail let fall.
Shaping, smoothing , mortising,
Where the trim-set tenons cling.
Toiling through the sweltering day,
While on ranges far away
Drips the trickling streamlet down
To the dead leaves, sodden brown.
And the little cowls of fern
"Twist and turn, and twist and turn."
Oh ! the sawmill on the rise, and the station roofs beyond,
Where the teal float half asleep on the lily padded pond,
Bare-armed men who watch the belt where the engine throbs all day,
Whistle in and out the whirr, drowning what the saw-teeth say--
"Twist and turn, where curve knots twine"
Cutting lengths of bunya pine;
Twist and turn and whizzing round.
Cast my amber dust to ground
A Carpenter is making shelves in the office next to mine ;
How sweet this February day the clean, cool breath of pine !
Brisbane.
Notes
From the NSW Newspaper The Sydney Mail 4 Feb 1920 p. 19.
The use of the military and police put down strikes was not unknown in Australia in the 1890's, see for example the songs of the 1891 Shearers Strike in this collection. Any further information about the song above would be most welcome.
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