On The Night Train Poem by Henry Lawson

On The Night Train

Rating: 3.1


Have you seen the bush by moonlight, from the train, go running by?
Blackened log and stump and sapling, ghostly trees all dead and dry;
Here a patch of glassy water; there a glimpse of mystic sky?
Have you heard the still voice calling – yet so warm, and yet so cold:
"I'm the Mother-Bush that bore you! Come to me when you are old"?

Did you see the Bush below you sweeping darkly to the Range,
All unchanged and all unchanging, yet so very old and strange!
While you thought in softened anger of the things that did estrange?
(Did you hear the Bush a-calling, when your heart was young and bold:
"I'm the Mother-bush that nursed you; Come to me when you are old"?)

In the cutting or the tunnel, out of sight of stock or shed,
Did you hear the grey Bush calling from the pine-ridge overhead:
"You have seen the seas and cities – all is cold to you, or dead –
All seems done and all seems told, but the grey-light turns to gold!
I'm the Mother-Bush that loves you – come to me now you are old"?

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Helene Walkowsky 26 July 2016

This is one of my most beloved Lawson poems. I feel like that when I walk through the bush. Mother Bush is a living being. When this poem is sung it brings tears to my eyes. I walk with my dog in the bush. As soon as we enter he is at home, I am a visitor, but he belongs. In summer it is lovely and cool under the trees, in winter it is never really cold. I am old now, just as the poet, Mother Bush loves me, I know.

2 0 Reply
Ray Collins 24 February 2020

Why do you only feel like a visitor? Are you not born and bred here? I never feel more at home than when I'm amongst the gum trees. Mother Bush lives right behind my back fence and I know she loves me too.

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Henry Lawson

Henry Lawson

Grenfell, New South Wales
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