Australian Bill

Australian Bill written by William Henry Davies

Nature Poems (1908)

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Australian Bill is dying fast,
  For he's a drunken fool:
He either sits in an alehouse,
  Or stands outside a school.

He left this house of ours at seven,
  And he was drunk by nine;
And when I passed him near a school
  He nods his head to mine.

When Bill took to the hospital,
  Sick, money he had none -
He came forth well, but lo! his home,
  His wife and child had gone.

'I'll watch a strange school every day,
  Until the child I see;
For Liz will send the child to school -
  No doubt of that,' says he.

And 'Balmy' Tom is near as bad,
  A-drinking ale till blind:
No absent child grieves he, but there's
  A dead love on his mind.

But Bill, poor Bill, is dying fast,
  For he's the greater fool;
He either sits in an alehouse
  Or stands outside a school.

This work is in the public domain in countries where the copyright term is the author's life plus 70 years or less.