Shearers' Song and Chorus (1889)
It is a jolly life that we shearers lead!
We rise at the sun's first gleaming,
And the morning song of the feathered throng
We hear while sluggards are dreaming.
No sneers of the proud does the shearer heed,
By the manhood of labour he stands,
And all men may learn that our bread we earn
By the strength of our own right hands.
With the click and the click
Of our shears cutting quick,
We cheerfully work while we may.
Through the fierce summer broil
For the loved ones we toil
Who are waiting for us far away.
A joyful song we cheerily sing
While our shears we're quickly plying
Till the last sunbeam, with a fading gleam,
On the west treetops is dying.
When shearing is o'er still blyther we are,
for no more through the country we'll roam,
But homeward return to friends who all burn
With impatience to welcome us home.
With the tramp and the tramp
Of our horses, who champ
At their bits till they're covered with foam,
With a laugh and a song.
We go riding along
To friends who welcome us home.
E. W. (Boggabri)
Notes
From the NSW Newspaper the Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser 13 November 1889.