George From Northampton Poem by Francis Duggan

I've often wondered why he did not stay
In his green country all those miles away
Since nostalgia he has not yet outgrown
And he still refers to Northampton as home? .

For twenty years he's lived out of England
Which makes it the harder to understand
Why he has never seemed to settle here
He still hold England and Northampton dear.

I have often heard him recite the poems of John Clare
And rhymes and songs he learnt over there
Some thirty years ago as schoolgoing boy
He won't allow the old memories to die.

With a teenage daughter and an Aussie wife
Perhaps in this Land he will spend his life
For he has a duty to his family
And George is true and none so loyal as he.

He will be forty on his next birthday
And through his brown hair you will see some gray
And the accent that he brought from far away
With George the fellow from Northampton stay.

The Dunnock chirp in the English hedgerow
And cool Autumn winds down through Northampton blow
And here south east of Melbourne it is Spring
And on blackwood tree the gray butcherbird sing.

And George from Northampton still talks of home
And nostalgia as of yet he's not outgrown
Which makes me wonder why he did not stay
In his green country all those miles away? .