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Banjo Paterson - Only a Jockey
Work rating: Medium

Out in the grey cheerless chill of the morning light,
Out on the track where the night shades still lurk,
ere the first gleam of the sungod`s returning light
Round come the racehorses early at work.
Reefing and pulling and racing so readily,
Close sit the jockey-boys holding them hard,
"Steady the stallion there — canter him steadily,
Don`t let him gallop so much as a yard."

Fiercely he fights while the others run wide of him,
Reefs at the bit that would hold him in thrall,
Plunges and bucks till the boy that`s astride of him
Goes to the ground with a terrible fall.

"Stop him there! Block him there! Drive him in carefully,
Lead him about till he`s quiet and cool.
Sound as a bell! though he`s blown himself fearfully,
Now let us pick up this poor little fool.

"Stunned? Oh, by Jove, I`m afraid it`s a case with him;
Ride for the doctor! keep bathing his head!
Send for a cart to go down to our place with him" —
No use! One long sigh and the little chap`s dead.

Only a jockey-boy, foul-mouthed and bad you see,
Ignorant, heathenish, gone to his rest.
Parson or Presbyter, Pharisee, Sadducee,
What did you do for him? — bad was the best.

Negroes and foreigners, all have a claim on you;
Yearly you send your well-advertised hoard,
But the poor jockey-boy — shame on you, shame on you,
"Feed ye My little ones" — what said the Lord?

Him ye held less than the outer barbarian,
Left him to die in his ignorant sin;
Have you no principles, humanitarian?
Have you no precept — "Go gather them in?"

Knew he God`s name? In his brutal profanity
That name was an oath — out of many but one.
What did he get from our famed Christianity?
Where has his soul — if he had any — gone?

Fourteen years old, and what was he taught of it?
What did he know of God`s infinite Grace?
Draw the dark curtain of shame o`er the thought of it
Draw the shroud over the jockey-boy`s face.
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