the bush girl    (henry lawson)

So you rode from the range where your brothers “select”
Through the ghostly grey bush in the dawn
You rode slowly at first, lest her heart should suspect
That you were [so] glad to be gone.
You had scarcely the courage to glance back at her
By the homestead receding from view
And you breathed with relief as you rounded the spur
For the world was a wide world to you.

    Grey eyes that grow sadder than sunset or rain
    Fond heart that is ever more true
    Firm faith that grows firmer for watching in vain
    She’ll wait by the sliprails for you.


Ah! The world is a new and a wide one to you
But the world to your sweetheart is shut
For a change never comes to the lonely Bush Girl
From the stockyard, the bush, and the hut.
And the only relief from the [its] dullness she feels
Is when ridges grow softened and dim
And away in the dusk to the sliprails she steals
To dream of past meetings [evenings] with him.

    Grey eyes that grow sadder than sunset or rain
    Fond heart that is ever more true
    Firm faith that grows firmer for watching in vain
    She’ll wait by the sliprails for you.

Do you think, where in place of bare fences, dry creeks
Clear streams and green hedges are seen
Where the girls have the lily and rose in their cheeks
And the grass in midsummer is green.
Do you think now and then, now or then, in the whirl
Of the city, while London is new
Of the hut in the bush, and the freckled-faced girl
Who is eating her heart out for you?

   Grey eyes that are sadder than sunset or rain
   Bruised heart that is ever more true
   Fond faith [heart] that is firmer for trusting in vain
   She waits by the sliprails for you.

Sung here by the late Gary Shearston (tune by Con Caston) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ9vgyb2S2Y

Seeing “Bonnie Jess” posted above, reminded me of this one – a very singable favourite in my teenage years and often heard in Perth’s folkclubs of the 60s-70s!

Cheers, R-J