There's nothing here sublime, <br />But just a roving rhyme, <br />Run off to pass the time, <br />With nought titanic in. <br />The theme that it supports, <br />And, though it treats of quarts, <br />It's bare of golden thoughts -- <br />It's just a pannikin. <br /> <br />I think it's rather hard <br />That each Australian bard -- <br />Each wan, poetic card -- <br />With thoughts galvanic in <br />His fiery thought alight, <br />In wild aerial flight, <br />Will sit him down and write <br />About a pannikin. <br /> <br />He makes some new-chum fare <br />From out his English lair <br />To hunt the native bear, <br />That curious mannikin; <br />And then the times get bad <br />That wandering English lad <br />Writes out a message sad <br />Upon his pannikin: <br /> <br />"O mother, think of me <br />Beneath the wattle tree" <br />(For you may bet that he <br />Will drag the wattle in) <br />"O mother, here I think <br />That I shall have to sink, <br />There ain't a single drink <br />The water-bottle in." <br /> <br />The dingo homeward hies, <br />The sooty crows uprise <br />And caw their fierce surprise <br />A tone Satanic in; <br />And bearded bushmen tread <br />Around the sleeper's head -- <br />"See here -- the bloke is dead! <br />Now where's his pannikin?" <br /> <br />They read his words and weep, <br />And lay him down to sleep <br />Where wattle branches sweep, <br />A style mechanic in; <br />And, reader, that's the way <br />The poets of today <br />Spin out their little lay <br />About a pannikin.<br /><br />Andrew Barton Paterson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-pannikin-poet/
