In hopeless deserts there;

It spreads nor'-west by No-Man's Land --
Where clouds are seldom seen --

To where the cattle-stations lie
Three hundred miles between.

The drovers of the Great Stock Routes
The strange Gulf country know --

Where, travelling from the southern droughts,
The big lean bullocks go;

And camped by night where plains lie wide,
Like some old ocean's bed,

The watchmen in the starlight ride
Round fifteen hundred head.

And west of named and numbered days
The shearers walk and ride --

Jack Cornstalk and the Ne'er-do-well,
And the grey-beard side by side;

They veil their eyes from moon and stars,
And slumber on the sand --

Sad memories sleep as years go round
In Never-Never Land.

By lonely huts north-west of Bourke,
Through years of flood and drought,

The best of English black-sheep work
Their own salvation out:

Wild fresh-faced boys grown gaunt and brown --
Stiff-lipped and haggard-eyed --

They live the Dead Past grimly down!
Where boundary-riders ride.

The College Wreck who sunk beneath,
Then rose above his shame,

Tramps West in mateship with the man
Who cannot write his name.

'Tis there where on the barren track
No last half-crust's begrudged --

Where saint and sinner, side by side,
Judge not, and are not judged.

Oh rebels to society!
The Outcasts of the West --

Oh hopeless eyes that smile for me,
And broken hearts that jest!

The pluck to face a thousand miles --
The grit to see it through!

The communism perfected! --
And -- I am proud of you!

The Arab to true desert sand,
The Finn to fields of snow;

The Flax-stick turns to Maoriland,
Where the seasons come and go;

And this old fact comes home to me --
And will not let me rest --

However barren it may be,
Your own land is the best!

And, lest at ease I should forget
True mateship after all,

My water-bag and billy yet
Are hanging on the wall;

And if my fate should show the sign,
I'd tramp to sunsets grand

With gaunt and stern-eyed mates of mine
In Never-Never Land.

End

• slumber [´slʌmbə] v.&n.睡眠；沉睡状态 (初中英语单词)
• lonely [´ləunli] a.孤独的；无人烟的 (初中英语单词)
• barren [´bærən] a.贫瘠的；不生育的 (初中英语单词)
• hopeless [´həupləs] a.无望的，无可救药的 (高中英语单词)
• salvation [sæl´veiʃən] n.救助；拯救 (高中英语单词)
• grimly [´grimli] ad.严厉地；坚强地 (高中英语单词)
• communism [´kɔmjunizəm] n.共产主义 (高中英语单词)
• hanging [´hæŋiŋ] n.绞刑 a.悬挂着的 (高中英语单词)
• sinner [´sinə] n.罪人 (英语四级单词)
• starlight [´stɑ:lait] n.星光 (英语六级单词)