The Shearer's Wife (1954)
Before, the glare of dawn I riseTo milk the sleepy cows an' shake
The droving dust from tired eyes.
I set the rabbit traps, then bake
The children's bread.
There's hay to stook, an' beans to hoe,
Ferns to cut in the scrub below.
Women must work, when men must go
Shearing from shed to shed. I patch and darn, now evening comes,
An' tired I am with labor sore.
Tired o' the bush, the cows, the gums,
Tired, but must dree for long months more
What no tongue tells.
The moon is lonely in the sky,
The bush is lonely, an' lonely
I Stare down the track no horse draws nigh
An' start ... at cattle bells. THOMAS LOUIS BUVELOT ESSON. Notes From the South Australian Newspaper the Chronicle 25 Feb 1954 p. 36.
Originally published in Esson's collection "Birds and Bees" in 1910
Before the glare o' dawn I riseTo milk the sleepy cows, an' shake
The droving dust from tired eyes.
I set the rabbit traps, then bake
The children's bread. There's hay to stook, an' beans to hoe,
Ferns to cut i' th' scrub below;
Women must work, when men must go
Shearing from shed to shed. I patch an' darn, now evening comes,
An' tired I am with labour sore,
Tired o' the bush, the cows, the gums,
Tired, but must dree for long months more
What no tongue tells.
The moon is lonely in the sky,
The bush is lonely, an' lonely
I Stare down the track no horse draws nigh
An' start ... at the cattle bells.
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