[Editor: This poem by C.J. Dennis was published in Backblock Ballads and Other Verses (1913). Most of the poetry of C.J. Dennis is written in the style of the Australian vernacular. See the Glossary for explanations of words and phrases.]
Doch-an-doris.
Be aisy Pat! Don’t lave like that!
Shure home was ne’er like this, man!
’Tis little use to quit the booze
Whin things have gone amiss, man.
’Twill help us bear our bit iv care
Whin troubles lie before us.
Come, sit ye down — lave off that frown,
An’ dhrink the Doch-an-doris.
Yarrowie plain is wantin’ rain,
And Boolie’s dhry as tinder;
The grass along the billabong
Is shrivelled to a cinder.
But what’s the odds?
Our ways ain’t God’s,
An’ fate’s not always for us;
So let it pass. Fill up your glass!
We’ll have the Doch-an-doris.
We’ve seen the time whin crops were prime,
An’ prices used to suit us;
Nor lacked a frind to help us spind
An’ condescind to loot us;
But now it’s o’er there’s little more
Than mortgagees to bore us,
But aise your mind. Put care behind,
An’ dhrink the Doch-an-doris.
Shure who can say a brighter day
Will be so long in comin’?
As good a one as thim that’s done
An’ times agin be hummin’?
Then never mind though fate’s unkind,
An’ former frinds ignore us,
I’m ownin’ yet a bob to wet —
Let’s have the Doch-an-doris !
Yes, I’ll allow I’m thinkin’ now
We might have thravelled mildly;
But faith, I’m sure if we had moore
We’d spind it just as wildly.
So lave it go. We niver know
What fortunes lie before us;
But shine or rain — have one more drain!
The last — the Doch-an-doris!
Source:
C.J. Dennis. Backblock Ballads and Other Verses, E. W. Cole, Melbourne, [1913], pages 17-18
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