| Knowledge, sent to where I met him down the Lachlan, years ago;
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| He was shearing when I knew him, so I sent the letter to him
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| Just «on spec», addressed as follows: «Clancy of The Overflow»
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| And an answer came directed in a writing unexpected
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| (And I think the same was written with a thumbnail dipped in tar);
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| 'Twas his shearing mate who wrote, and verbatim I will quote it:
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| «Clancy's gone to Queensland droving, and we don’t know where he are.»
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| In my wild erratic fancy visions come to me of Clancy
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| Gone a-droving down the Cooper where the Western drovers go;
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| As the stock are slowly stringing, Clancy rides behind them singing
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| For the drover’s life has pleasures that the townsfolk never know
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| And the bush hath friends to meet him, and their kindly voices greet him
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| In the murmur of the breezes and the river on its bars
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| And he sees the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended
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| And at night, the wondrous glory of the everlasting stars
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| I am sitting in my dingy little office, where a stingy
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| Ray of sunlight struggles feebly down between the houses tall
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| And the foetid air and gritty of the dusty, dirty city
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| Through the open window floating, spreads its foulness over all
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| And in place of lowing cattle, I can hear the fiendish rattle
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| Of the tramways and the buses making hurry down the street
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| And the language uninviting of the gutter children fighting
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| Comes fitfully and faintly through the ceaseless tramp of feet
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| And the hurrying people daunt me, and their pallid faces haunt me
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| As they shoulder one another in their rush and nervous haste
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| With their eager eyes and greedy, and their stunted forms and weedy
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| For the townsfolk have no time to grow, they have no time to waste
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| And I’d somehow rather fancy that I’d like to change with Clancy
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| Like to take a turn at droving where the seasons come and go
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| While he faced the round eternal of the cashbook and the journal —
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| But I’d doubt he’d suit the office, Clancy of The Overflow |