Read "Collected Poetry" by Andrew Barton Paterson online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
We read in the press that Lord Northcote is here To take up Lord Tennyson's mission. 'Tis pleasant to find they have sent us a Peer, And a man of exalted position. It's his business to see that the Radical horde From loyalty's path does not swerve us; But his tastes, and the task, don't seem quite in accord For they say that His Lordship is nervous.
Does he think that wild animals walk in the street, Where the wary marsupial is hopping? Does he think that the snake and the platypus meet And "bail up" the folk who go shopping? And that boomerangs fly round the scared passer-by Who has come all this way to observe us. While the blackfellow launches a spear at his eye? --No wonder His Lordship is nervous.