The daylight is dying Away in the west,
The wild birds are flying
In silence to rest;
In leafage and frondage Where shadows are deep,They pass to their bondage- The kingdom of sleep.
And, watched in their sleeping By stars in the height,They rest in your keeping, O wonderful Night.
When night doth her glories Of star-shine unfold," Tis then that the stories
Of Bushland are told. Unnumbered I hold them In memories bright,But who could unfold them
Or read them aright?
Beyond all denials
The stars in their glories, The breeze in the myalls,Are part of their stories. The waving of grasses,The song of the river That sings as it passes,For ever and ever.
The hobble-chain"s rattle,
The calling of birds, The lowing of cattle,
Must blend with the words. Without these indeed youWould find it ere long
As though I should read you The words of a songThat lamely would linger When lacking the rune,The voice of the singer, The lilt of the tune.
But, as one half-hearing
An old-time refrain, With memory clearing,
Recalls it again.
These tales roughly wrought of The bush and its ways,May call back a thought of The wandering days;And, blending with each
In the mem"ries that throng,
There haply shall reach You some echo of song.
- Andrew Barton Paterson
Author.-Andrew Barton Paterson ( "Banjo") was born in New South Wales in 1864, and became a lawyer and journalist. He served in the South African War and as a remount officer in Egypt. He wrote for the Sydney Bulletin many stirring bush ballads, which were afterwards published in book form-The Man from Snowy River, Rio Grande"s Last Race, Saltbush Bill, Old Bush Songs (edited), as well as prose works-An Outback Marriage, Three Elephant Power, etc. His people were pastoralists.
"He is the poet of the man who rides, as Lawson is of the man who walks."General Notes.-What is the difference between leafage andfrondage? Picture a scene where the bushland stories are told- " while the billy boils." What do the hobble-chain"s rattle and the lowing of cattle suggest? Tell any bush songs that the singer might sing. Where did Mr. Paterson hear these songs and these stories? "Rune" here means charm or magic.