A Swan River Melody Fly Not Yet(1836)
Fly not yet ! we're all agreed
That office, like a noxious weed,
Which nicer taste, rejects, disdains,
Grows sweeter for its stings, and stains,
To Mackie, Moore and Co,
T'was, but that we might held it fast,
The Rules, the glorious Rules were passed,
For whose four score immortal clauses
The Lawyers gave their five pound cases
Oh stay, oh stay
Men so often vainly long
For pay and place that oh ! 'twere wrong
So soon to let them go !
Fly not yet !--the thief that stood
Of yore beneath the fatal wood,
Now tried the rope, now paced the cart,
But seemed unwilling to depart,
When the doomed hour was near;
And thus Moore much cuffed about,
Will often talk of "going out,"
Will hint he's done, will vow he'll do it
But will not till he's driven to it ;
Oh stay, oh stay!
Why did Stirling o'er put in
Legal heads so very fine,
To serve Swan River so?
W. N. C.
Notes
From the WA Newspaper the Swan River Guardian Thu 24 Nov 1836 pp. 31-32.