Poem by Andrew Barton Paterson

How M’Ginnis went missing

Let us cease our idle chatter, 
Let the tears bedew our cheek, 
For a man from Tallangatta 
Has been missing for a week. 
Where the roaring flooded Murray 
Covered all the lower land, 
There he started in a hurry, 
With a bottle in his hand. 

And his fate is hid for ever, 
But the public seem to think 
That he slumbered by the river, 
’Neath the influence of drink. 

And they scarcely seem to wonder 
That the river, wide and deep, 
Never woke him with its thunder, 
Never stirred him in his sleep. 
As the crashing logs came sweeping, 
And their tumult filled the air, 
Then M’Ginnis murmured, sleeping, 
`’Tis a wake in ould Kildare.’ 
So the river rose and found him 
Sleeping softly by the stream, 
And the cruel waters drowned him 
Ere he wakened from his dream. 

And the blossom-tufted wattle, 
Blooming brightly on the lea, 
Saw M’Ginnis and the bottle 
Going drifting out to sea.

1. A Grain of Desert Sand
2. That Half-Crown Sweep
3. Under the Shadow of Kiley’s Hill
4. Song of the Artesian Water
5. The Two Devines

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