My Wifes Second Husband

The world goes round, old fellow,
And still Im in the swim,
While my wifes second husband
Is growing old and grim.
I meet him in the city,
It all seems very tame,
He glances at me sometimes
As if I were to blame.

Oh, my wifes second husband
Was handsome, young and true;
He had his boyish visions
(I had my visions too).
He made a model lover,
The greenest in the game,
They say, when I was married
That I was just the same.

Though I am ten years older
My hair is dark to-day,
While my wifes second husband
Is quickly growing grey.
I drank when first he knew me,
And he drank not at all;
I see that he, through drinking,
Is going to the wall.

A sweet ill-treated woman,
A drunken brute (Good Lord!),
Ah, well, she got her freedom,
And he got his reward.
Hell fight it out a season,
For Fate will not be forced,
But my wifes second husband
Shall surely be divorced.

I sympathize, and wonder
What mutual friends would think
If my wifes second husband
And I should have a drink.
And I a mere bystander,
It almost seems absurd,
Might lay prophetically
My hand on my wifes third.

But my wifes second husband
His sorrows shall forget,
Well clasp warm hands in friendship
And clink our glasses yet.
Well smoke cigars together,
In pure philosophy,
While calmly contemplating
The fate of number three.

Henry Lawson

Henry Lawson was an Australian writer and poet. Along with Banjo Paterson, he is among the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the colonial period and is often called Australia's 'greatest short story writer'. His works frequently document the lives and struggles of rural and outback Australians. Lawson's own life was marked by hardship and struggles including impaired hearing and financial difficulties, which influenced his realist depictions of Australian life. Some of his notable works include 'While the Billy Boils' and 'In the Days When the World was Wide.'

Henry Lawson

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English

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Keeping His First Wife Now

It's oh! for a rivet in marriage bonds,
And a splice in the knot untied,
The sanctity of the marriage tie
Is growing more sanctified!
Theyre getting mixed up in society,
Theres an awful family row,
For Reginald Jones of The Fernery
Is keeping his first wife now!

Oh! she belonged to the smart, smart set
(Where reasons are far to seek),
And the wedding and crush are remembered yet
As the smart things of the week.
Never an atom of love had she,
But they had a child somehow,
And Reginald Jones of The Fernery
Has the love of his first wife now.

Mad for notice and talk was she,
A butterfly blind as a bat,
She would flaunt for a season a divorcee,
Or divorce him, failing that.
He played his part and she held his heart

Henry Lawson

Written Afterwards

So the days of my tramping are over,
And the days of my riding are done,
Im about as content as a rover
Will ever be under the sun;
I write, after reading your letter,
My pipe with old memories rife,
And I feel in a mood that had better
Not meet the true eyes of the wife.

You must never admit a suggestion
That old things are good to recall;
You must never consider the question:
Was I happier then, after all?
You must banish the old hope and sorrow
That make the sad pleasures of life,
You must live for To-day and To-morrow
If you want to be just to the wife.

I have changed since the first day I kissed her.
Which is due, Heaven bless her!, to her;
Im respected and trusted, Im Mister,
Addressed by the children as Sir.
And ...

Henry Lawson

Divorced

Two couples are drifting the self-same way
(Men of the world know well)
From the ballroom glare as the night grows grey
(Men of the world can tell).
Many are round them who know, and knew,
But men of the world are blind;
That couple in front has nought to do
With the couple that comes behind.

The woman starts on her partners arm,
For a reason he could not tell,
She trips and she laughs the Society laugh,
That men of the world know well.
If she laughs too suddenly, talks too fast,
We are deaf as well as blind,
Twas only the ghosts of the girlish days
When she married the man behind.

He feels a pang where his heart had been
(For a reason he cannot tell).
A spasm that mars the cynical smile
That men of the world know well.
A spas...

Henry Lawson

Im An Older Man Than You

When youve managed with the tailor for a rig-out of a sort
And you find the coat or trousers are an inch or so too short,
Do not fret and swear and worry, make the tailor see you through,
I have been through many new suits, Im an older man than you.

When your girl is interfering with your appetite and work,
With your sleep and time and reason till the jealous demons lurk;
When your girl is playing with you, leave her for a week or two:
If in vain, then quit for ever! Im an older man than you.

When your wife deceives or leaves you for a blackguard, brute, and sot,
And when not a soul believes you when you say that you were not;
Do not rave or brood and weaken, and the years will prove you true,
Let your own self be the beacon! Im an older man than you.

...

Henry Lawson

The Separated Women

The Separated Women
Go lying through the land,
For they have plenty dresses,
And money, too, in hand;
They married brutes and drunkards
And blackguards frightful low,
But why are they so eager
For all the world to know?

The shamed and ill-used woman
Who really longs to die,
She slaves at home in silence
And hides her poor black eye!
She lives a life of terror
Eased off at times in woe,
But why is she so frightened
That any one might know?

The Separated Woman
She rushes to the court,
Sad, shabby and pathetic,
Or flaunting or distraught;
The real wronged wife would rather
Lose both eyes and her hair,
She swears a lie to save him
When he is taken there.

The Separated Woman
She mostly goes the same,<...

Henry Lawson

The Peace Maker

It has a point of neither sex
But comes in guise of both,
And, doubly dangerous complex,
It is a thing to loathe,
A lady with her sweet, sad smile,
A gentleman on oath.

Strip off the mother-veil, and fur!
And signs of quiet taste.
The dead childs locket take from her
(The dead mans gift in haste)
And wash from every evil line
The layers of filling paste!

From saddened eyes the hells own glare!
From sweet mouth blasphemy!
Wrench out the gold-filled false teeth there
That twice mock honesty,
And leave the evil face awry
For married folk to see.

For foolish girl wives in despair,
For mens and childrens sakes,
Let loose the glossed and padded hair
To writhe like scorching snakes!
And strip the barren bod...

Henry Lawson

My Wifes Second Husband

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My Wifes Second Husband