• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

The Institute of Australian Culture

Heritage, history, and heroes; literature, legends, and larrikins

  • Home
  • Articles
  • Biographies
  • Books
  • Ephemera
  • Poetry & songs
    • Recommended poetry
    • Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
    • Poetry and songs, 1901-1954
    • Rock music and pop music [videos]
    • Early music [videos]
  • Slang
  • Timeline
    • Timeline of Australian history and culture
    • Calendar of Australian history and culture
    • Significant events and commemorative dates
  • Topics

Dossin’ Outer Doors [poem by “Dryblower” Murphy, 1926]

7 June 2014 · Leave a Comment

[Editor: This poem by “Dryblower” Murphy was published in Dryblower’s Verses (1926).]

Dossin’ Outer Doors.

(The President of the London School of Medicine recommends sleeping in the open air).

I ain’t a scientific bloke, but spare me dinkum days,
If I tumble to this josser and his noo fandangled ways,
Seems to me if ’e’s got enny bumps protrudin’ from ’ees ’ead,
It ’e knows a good fernolorgist ’e oughter get ’em read,
This doctor covey reckons as a bloke wots got a corf —
Which ’e reckons might be liable to pop im sudden orf —
Orter seek the clear an’ open w’en ’e slumbers and ’e snores,
So ’ee’s crackin’ up the noo prescription —
Dossin’ outer doors!

“It’s wrong” sez ’e. “to go ter bed in enny room at all,
It’s wrong ter ’ave a ceilin’ and it’s wrong to ave a wall,
It’s wrong ter ’ave a winder shut, it’s wrong to drore the blind,”
An’ a lot of wise flapdoodle of a sim’lar sorter kind.
I dunno ’ow they come at it, but strike me fat they do!
Just as if they was a rabbit or a crimson kangaroo.
They talk about their oxygin an’ Natcher’s guidin’ lors,
But I reckon there’s a push of lizards —
Dossin’ outer doors!

If they really want to test it, let ’em come along o’ me,
W’en I’m trampin’ for me tucker an’ I’m stony through a spree.
Let ’em crouch beside a cow-shed when the rain is drizzlin’ down,
An’ there’s twenty-mile o’ mud before you strike the nearest town.
Let ’em prospect in the mulga where the ants get in yer ’air,
While the prad walks on yer phizog just to let yer know ’ees there,
An’ w’en the niggers sneak yer gin, yer blanket, an’ yer stores,
You’ll reckon things is pretty onkus —
Dossin’ outer doors!

Look me up, down an’ sideways, look at me an’ look agin,
Me, ’oos been a-dossin’ out since I was old enough to sin.
An’ wot’s it done for me that I should join the gen’ral ’owl,
Agin a bit o’ shelter wot you ’ave to give a fowl?
’As it gimme quids or di’monds? ’As it even gimme beer?
No, it ’asn’t, though I’ve been at it for nearly forty year.
But it’s gimme grass-seed in me pants and gravel in me pores,
So I’m up agin this noo-fandangled —
Dossin’ outer doors!



Source:
Edwin Greenslade Murphy, Dryblower’s Verses, Perth, W.A.: E. G. Murphy, 1926, pages 5-6

Previously published (with some differences) in:
The Sunday Times (Perth, WA), 16 October 1904, p. 4
Dryblower, Jarrahland Jingles: A Volume of Westralian Verse, Perth (W.A.): R.S. Sampson for Sunday Times, 1908, pages 26-28

Editor’s notes:
fernolorgist = (a vernacular spelling of “phrenologist”) someone who adhered to the now-discredited science of phrenology, a theory based on the idea that shape, size, and configurations of the skull gave indications as to character traits and mental abilities

onkus = (slang) bad, inferior, unpleasant, unattractive

phizog = (or “phiz”) face (derived from the word “physiognomy”, regarding one’s countenance or face)

prad = horse

[Editor: Corrected “up down” to “up, down”.]

Filed Under: poetry Tagged With: Dryblower Murphy (1866-1939) (author), Dryblower’s Verses (Dryblower Murphy 1926), poem, SourceSLV, year1926

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Australian flag, Kangaroo, Wattle, 100hThe Institute of Australian Culture
Heritage, history, and heroes. Literature, legends, and larrikins. Stories, songs, and sages.

Search this site

Featured books

The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses, by Banjo Paterson A Book for Kids, by C. J. Dennis  The Bulletin Reciter: A Collection of Verses for Recitation from The Bulletin The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, by C. J. Dennis The Complete Inner History of the Kelly Gang and Their Pursuers, by J. J. Kenneally The Foundations of Culture in Australia, by P. R. Stephensen The Australian Crisis, by C. H. Kirmess Such Is Life, by Joseph Furphy
More books (full text)

Featured lists

Timeline of Australian history and culture
A list of significant Australiana
Significant events and commemorative dates
Australian slang
Books (full text)
Australian literature
Rock music and pop music (videos)
Folk music and bush music (videos)
Early music (videos)
Recommended poetry
Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
Poetry and songs, 1901-1954
Australian explorers
Topics
Links

Featured posts

Advance Australia Fair: How the song became the Australian national anthem
Brian Cadd [music videos and biography]
Ned Kelly: Australian bushranger
Under the Southern Cross I Stand [the Australian cricket team’s victory song]

Some Australian authors

E. J. Brady
John Le Gay Brereton
C. J. Dennis
Mary Hannay Foott
Joseph Furphy
Mary Gilmore
Charles Harpur
Grant Hervey
Lucy Everett Homfray
Rex Ingamells
Henry Kendall
“Kookaburra”
Henry Lawson
Jack Moses
“Dryblower” Murphy
John Shaw Neilson
John O’Brien (Patrick Joseph Hartigan)
“Banjo” Paterson
Marie E. J. Pitt
A. G. Stephens
P. R. Stephensen
Agnes L. Storrie (Agnes L. Kettlewell)

Recent Posts

  • To Australia [poem by Ruby Jean Stephenson, 18 November 1943]
  • [General news items] [4 April 1912]
  • [Australia has had more than its share of shipping disasters of late] [4 April 1912]
  • [Probably Professor Marshall Hall was right] [4 April 1912]
  • Gold-seekers of the Fifties [1 July 1899]

Top Posts & Pages

  • The Man from Snowy River [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • Australian slang
  • The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • The Aboriginal Mother [poem by Eliza Hamilton Dunlop, 13 December 1838]
  • Taking His Chance [poem by Henry Lawson]

Archives

Categories

Posts of note

The Bastard from the Bush [poem, circa 1900]
A Book for Kids [by C. J. Dennis, 1921]
Click Go the Shears [traditional Australian song, 1890s]
Core of My Heart [“My Country”, poem by Dorothea Mackellar, 24 October 1908]
Freedom on the Wallaby [poem by Henry Lawson, 16 May 1891]
The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]
Nationality [poem by Mary Gilmore, 12 May 1942]
The Newcastle song [music video, sung by Bob Hudson]
No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest [poem by Mary Gilmore, 29 June 1940]
Our pipes [short story by Henry Lawson]
Rommel’s comments on Australian soldiers [1941-1942]
Shooting the moon [short story by Henry Lawson]

Recent Comments

  • IAC on How M’Ginnis Went Missing [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • Stephen on How M’Ginnis Went Missing [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • IAC on The late Louisa Lawson [by George Black, 2 October 1920]
  • Percy Delouche on Freedom on the Wallaby [poem by Henry Lawson, 16 May 1891]
  • Phil on The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]

For Australia

Copyright © 2023 · Log in