“THE SONG OF THE SHOVEL.”

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 144084, 1 May 1913, Page 8

“THE SONG OF THE SHOVEL.”

The following verses, culled from a book just published by Patrick MacGill, are very realistic, .and have a distinct smack of Kipling about ■ them. They are taken from'a book of poems entitled “Sons of the Dead End. ’■ The first is “The Song of the Shovel.” Down on creation’s ■ muck-pile, where the sinful swelter, and.sweat, Where the scum of the earth fore-. gather, rough- and untutored yet, Where they swear in the six-foot spaces or toil' in the barrow, squad. The men of unshaven faces, the.ranks of the very bad; Where the bruto is more than the human, the muscle .more than the mind. Where their gods are the loud-voiced gaffers, rugged, uncouth, unkind: Where the rough of the road are roosting, where the failed and the Tallen be, There , have we met in the ditchway, there haye I plighted with thee, The .wage-slave troth of our union, and found thee true to my trust. Stoic in loveless labour/ 1 companion when beggared and burst. Wonderful navvy shovel, last of tools and the first. Again, on tramp in 1909, “Down on the Dead End”; I’vo toiled at the end of creation, stripped to the trousers and shirt. I've: hashed like the very damnation and squandered my money like dirt; ’ And jobs that are nameless I’ve wrought in, and deeds that are shameless I’ve done, t And fights without number I’ve fought in, and paid like the deuce for my fun, 1 And then,, “L’Envoi—To My Pick and Shovel” i When the last long shift will he laboured, and the lying time will be burst, And we go as nicks or shovels, navvies or nabob's, must/ When you go up on the scrap-heap and I will go down to the dust, Will over a one remember the times bur voices rang. When yon were limber and 'issome, and T was lusty and‘young? Remember the jobs we’ve laboured, the .heartful songs we’ve sung? When you go up on the scrap-heap, and I go down to the dust — / (Little children of labour, food for tlio worms: and the rust), — When the last long shift will be laboured and the . lying , time will be. burst. j * -