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...IN SAN MARCO, VENEZIA by WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS SONNET: THE EVENING STAR by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW PHILOMELA by JOHN CROWE RANSOM GOD'S DETERMINATIONS: CHRIST'S REPLY by EDWARD TAYLOR WEIGHTS AND MEASURES, BY OUR OWN TOM DALY by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS SWORD AND BUCKLER; OR, SERVING-MAN'S DEFENCE: INTRODUCTION by WILLIAM BASSE IN VINCULIS; SONNETS WRITTEN IN AN IRISH PRISON: GOD IS MY WITNESS by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT |