A Singer of the Bush
A Singer of the Bush - fact Summary
Celebrates Australian Bush Life
This short poem contrasts the tender pleasures of Spring with the harsh realities of drought and struggling stock. Paterson adopts the voice of an observer-singer who celebrates the bush’s scents and songs while also recording the fight to save animals and livelihoods. The poem compresses admiration and duty into two linked stanzas, reflecting the poet’s habitual focus on rural Australian life and its challenges.
Read Complete AnalysesThere is waving of grass in the breeze And a song in the air, And a murmur of myriad bees That toil everywhere. There is scent in the blossom and bough, And the breath of the Spring Is as soft as a kiss on a brow -- And Spring-time I sing. There is drought on the land, and the stock Tumble down in their tracks Or follow -- a tottering flock -- The scrub-cutter's axe. While ever a creature survives The axes shall swing; We are fighting with fate for their lives -- And the combat I sing.
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