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. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BOYHOOD FRIENDS by EDGAR LEE MASTERS THAT VAGRANT MISTRAL VEXING THE SUN: A FAR CRY by DARA WIER EGERTON MANUSCRIPT: 104. JOPAS'S SONG by THOMAS WYATT REMEMBERED MUSIC; A FRAGMENT by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL FRANCE; THE 18TH YEAR OF THESE STATES by WALT WHITMAN THE HYMNARY: 324. WHITSUNTIDE by ADAM OF SAINT VICTOR THE FLAT-HUNTER'S WAY by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS PSALM 32. BEATI QUORUM REMISSA SUNT by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE A FAVOURITE SCENE; RECALLED ON LOOKING AT BIRKET FOSTER'S LANDSCAPE by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN |