The Bush Girl (1901)
by Henry Lawson (1867 – 1922)
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[ V.1 ]
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.
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[ CHORUS ]
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 slip-rails for you.
(She'll wait by the slip-rails for you.
She'll wait by the slip-rails for you.)
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[ V.2 ]
Ah ! The world is a new and a wide one to you,
But the world to your sweetheart is shut,
For a chance never comes to the lonely Bush homes
Of the stockyard, the scrub, and the hut ;
And the only relief from its dullness she feels
When the ridges grow softened and dim,
And away in the dusk to the slip-rails she steals
To dream of past hours 'with him.'
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[ CHORUS ]
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 slip-rails for you.
(She'll wait by the slip-rails for you.
She'll wait by the slip-rails for you.)
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[ V.3 ]
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 mid-summer is green —
Do you think, now and then, now or then, in the whirl
Of the town life, while London is new,
Of the hut in the Bush and the freckled-faced girl
Who waits by the slip-rails for you ?
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[ CHORUS ]
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 slip-rails for you.
(She'll wait by the slip-rails for you.
She'll wait by the slip-rails for you.)
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[ LAST CHORUS ]
Grey eyes that are sadder than sunset or rain,
Bruised heart that is ever more true,
Fond faith that is firmer for trusting in vain —
She waits by the slip-rails for you.
(She waits by the slip-rails for you.
She waits by the slip-rails for you.)
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