OUT BACK.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 542, 15 February 1913, Page 2

OUT BACK.

To Australian poetry we loo'c fot etchings, of those nameless men v. he toil and moil in the vanguard of thf war against the .brute forces of a grudging and malignant desolation—each line to fall slow and heavy as a bead of sweat. And we get v. hat \vc want from Henry Lawson in "Out Back." which is more than icaLsin being bitter realityHe begged his way on the pa^fhnd Paroo and the Warrego, traces once more And lived like a dog, as the swagmen do, till the western station shore ; But men were many, and sheds wort full, for work in the town wat slack — The traveller never got hands ir wool, though he tramped for a year Out Back. In stifling noons when his back was wrung by its load, and the a" seemed dead, And the water warmed in the bag that hung on his aching arm like lead ; Or in times of flood, when plains were seas, and tne scrubs were cold and black, He ploughed in mud to his tremMing knees, and paid for his sins Out Back. And dirty and careless and old he wore, as his lamp of hope grew dim ; He tramped for years till the swag he bore seemed part of himself tio him. As a bullock drags in the sandy ruts, he followed the. dreary track With never a thought but to reach the huts when the sun went down Out Back.