It's grand to be a squatter <br />And sit upon a post, <br />And watch your little ewes and lambs <br />A-giving up the ghost. <br /> <br />It's grand to be a "cockie" <br />With wife and kids to keep, <br />And find an all-wise Providence <br />Has mustered all your sheep. <br /> <br />It's grand to be a Western man, <br />With shovel in your hand, <br />To dig your little homestead out <br />From underneath the sand. <br /> <br />It's grand to be a shearer <br />Along the Darling-side, <br />And pluck the wool from stinking sheep <br />That some days since have died. <br /> <br />It's grand to be a rabbit <br />And breed till all is blue, <br />And then to die in heaps because <br />There's nothing left to chew. <br /> <br />It's grand to be a Minister <br />And travel like a swell, <br />And tell the Central District folk <br />To go to -- Inverell. <br /> <br />It's grand to be a socialist <br />And lead the bold array <br />That marches to prosperity <br />At seven bob a day. <br />It's grand to be unemployed <br />And lie in the Domain, <br />And wake up every second day -- <br />And go to sleep again. <br /> <br />It's grand to borrow English tin <br />To pay for wharves and docks <br />And then to find it isn't in <br />The little money-box. <br /> <br />It's grand to be a democrat <br />And toady to the mob, <br />For fear that if you told the truth <br />They'd hunt you from your job. <br /> <br />It's grand to be a lot of things <br />In this fair Southern land, <br />But if the Lord would send us rain, <br />That would, indeed, be grand!<br /><br />Andrew Barton Paterson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/it-s-grand/
