Explore "The Briny Grave" by Henry Lawson on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
I notice in "Answers to Correspondents" that the "Bulletin" has no / sympathy for, or can't understand the poet bloke that wishes to be buried / at sea. I don't wish to be buried anywhere just at present, but I've seen / three such burials, and might be able to throw light on the subject. Give / me a show. Quick time: --
YOU WONDER why so many would be buried in the sea, / In this world of froth and bubble, / But I don't wonder, for it seems to me / That it saves such a lot of trouble. / And there ain't no undertaker -- / Oh! there ain't no order that your friends can give / On the quiet to the coffin-maker -- / To a gimcrack coffin-maker, / They make no differ twixt the absentee swell / And the clerk that cut from a "shortage" -- / Oh! there ain't no pauper funer-el, / And there ain't no "impressive cortege. " / It may be a chap from the for'ard crowd, / Or a member of the British Peerage, / But they sew his nibs in a canvas shroud / Just the same as the bloke from the steerage -- / As that poor bloke from the steerage.