Let us cease our idle chatter, <br />Let the tears bedew our cheek, <br />For a man from Tallangatta <br />Has been missing for a week. <br />Where the roaring flooded Murray <br />Covered all the lower land, <br />There he started in a hurry, <br />With a bottle in his hand. <br /> <br />And his fate is hid for ever, <br />But the public seem to think <br />That he slumbered by the river, <br />'Neath the influence of drink. <br /> <br />And they scarcely seem to wonder <br />That the river, wide and deep, <br />Never woke him with its thunder, <br />Never stirred him in his sleep. <br />As the crashing logs came sweeping, <br />And their tumult filled the air, <br />Then M'Ginnis murmured, sleeping, <br />`'Tis a wake in ould Kildare.' <br />So the river rose and found him <br />Sleeping softly by the stream, <br />And the cruel waters drowned him <br />Ere he wakened from his dream. <br /> <br />And the blossom-tufted wattle, <br />Blooming brightly on the lea, <br />Saw M'Ginnis and the bottle <br />Going drifting out to sea. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /><br /><br />Andrew Barton Paterson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/how-m-ginnis-went-missing/
