Read "Every Man should have a Rifle" by Henry Lawson online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
So I sit and write and ponder, while the house is deaf and dumb, / Seeing visions "over yonder" of the war I know must come. / In the corner -- not a vision -- but a sign for coming days, / Stand a box of ammunition and a rifle in green baize. / And in this, the living present, let the word go through the land, / Every tradesman, clerk and peasant should have these two things at hand.
No -- no ranting song is needed, and no meeting, flag or fuss / In the future, still unheeded, shall the spirit come to us! / Without feathers, drum or riot , on the day that is to be, / We shall march down, very quiet, to our stations by the sea. / While the bitter parties stifle every voice that warns of war, / Every man should own a rifle and have cartridges in store!