Andy's Gone With Cattle
Henry Lawson
Teacher card
- Published
- 1896, in In the Days When the World Was Wide, and Other Verses
- Length
- 32 lines, 186 words, 1 word in 37 is long
- Year band
- Reading load: Years 3–4. A guide from word length, not a curriculum level.
- Themes
- heat
- Time
- 5–10 min, depending on the activity
The text
Our Andy's gone to battle now'Gainst Drought, the red marauder;Our Andy's gone with cattle nowAcross the Queensland border.
He's left us in dejection now;Our hearts with him are roving.It's dull on this selection now,Since Andy went a-droving.
Who now shall wear the cheerful faceIn times when things are slackest?And who shall whistle round the placeWhen Fortune frowns her blackest?
Oh, who shall cheek the squatter nowWhen he comes round us snarling?His tongue is growing hotter nowSince Andy cross'd the Darling.
The gates are out of order now,In storms the 'riders' rattle;For far across the border nowOur Andy's gone with cattle.
Poor Aunty's looking thin and white;And Uncle's cross with worry;And poor old Blucher howls all nightSince Andy left Macquarie.
Oh, may the showers in torrents fall,And all the tanks run over;And may the grass grow green and tallIn pathways of the drover;
And may good angels send the rainOn desert stretches sandy;And when the summer comes againGod grant 'twill bring us Andy.
Henry Lawson (died 1922), In the Days When the World Was Wide, and Other Verses (1896), lines 1049–1087 of Project Gutenberg ebook #214. Public domain in Australia: the author died before 1955. Copied word for word and checked against the ebook.
What to do with it
- Its lines are dealt for the sky in the weather poemsin weatherline · 32 lines · about 5–10 min
See where weatherline takes lines from this poem, then read today's poem the sky has chosen.
weatherline.popplepoetry.com/sources#la-andy
Send the whole hand-out
https://popplepoetry.com/find/lawson-andys-gone-with-cattle · popplepoetry.com