Explore "Swinging the Lead" by Andrew Barton Paterson on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Said the soldier to the Surgeon, "I've got noises in me head / And a kind o' filled up feeling after every time I'm fed; / I can sleep all night on picket, but I can't sleep in my bed". / And the Surgeon said, / "That's Lead!"
Said the soldier to the surgeon, "Do you think they'll send me back? / For I really ain't adapted to be carrying a pack / Though I've humped a case of whisky half a mile upon my back". / And the Surgeon said, / "That's Lead!"
-"And my legs have swelled up cruel, I can hardly walk at all, / But when the Taubes come over you should see me start to crawl; / When we're sprinting for the dugout, I can easy beat 'em all". / And the Surgeon said, / "That's Lead."
So they sent him to the trenches where he landed safe and sound, / And fie drew his ammunition, just about two fifty round: / "Oh, Sergeant, what's this heavy stuff I've got to hump around? " / And the Sergeant said, / "That's Lead!"
The Kia-ora Coo-ee, April 1918