Francis Duggan Poems

Why don't you go back to Ireland mate the Aussie bloke did say
As we've got far too many foreigners here at least 'twould seem that way
And there's plenty of Australians can do the work you do
So go back to your own Country mate Australia doesn't need you
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I do respect Elizabeth Australia's absent Queen
Though in the sunny Southern Land she is not often seen
She lives in her huge palace in London far away
But she will remain Australia's Queen as long as the likes of John Howard have their say.
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Everybody is good at something with that most would agree
And there is more to anyone than the naked eye can see
And when Hillary and Norgay climbed Mt Everest they made their own history
And John Masefield is remembered as the great poet of the sea.
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Goodbye Peter and Eileen
Soon you leave the woodland green
And sad am I to see you go
As you were nice so nice to know.
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Do you work with pen in Heaven Francis ledwidwge Poet of Slane
And do your heart rejoice at bird song in God's kingdom free of pain
And are you a dean of lyric in God's paradise above
And do you thrill the hearts of Heaven with your songs of joy and love?
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He is one who can write thirty poems a day
And what some say in forty lines in three lines he can say
And in the World of Literature he has built his name
And give the poet John credit for he has earned his fame.
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We lock our doors us prisoners of fear
And dread our neighbour to us ever near
And we close our blinds for to keep prying eyes away
And fear surrounds us every night and day.
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To the wide brown country the Seasons come and go
South in South Australia where the Murray flow
Through the wide brown country where the brown dust fly
When the gales are rushing down the southern sky.
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The hills surrounding Casterton are looking rather brown
And not much in the line of commerce in the old colonial Town,
The Glenelg river is not flowing for the weather's been too dry
For months on end day after day the sun's blazed in the sky.
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In Hamilton in the Southern Grampians the population grow
A more industrial inland Town I cannot say I know
In the heart of farming country that in Summer looks so brown
There is a City atmosphere about this rural Town.
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