• 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

Nickin’ In [poem by “Dryblower” Murphy, 1926]

7 June 2014 · Leave a Comment

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

Nickin’ In.

I am sitting in the stalls —
Evening dress and all the rest —
Where the scented knutlet sprawls
With the flapper faintly drest,
Swishing skirts and billowy blouse,
Figures fat and figures lean,
Powdered necks and pencilled brows,
Smart coiffures and brilliantine.
Yet, amid this modern joy,
Where the stars in splendour spin,
I am once again a boy —
Nickin’ in!

In our mellow middle-age
On the years propelling pow’rs,
Swing we back unto the stage
Of our happy boyhood’s hours.
We are staring, eager-eyed
At the placards of the past —
“The Bandit and His Bride,”
“The Murder on the Mast.”
Thou a whip-stick they’d employ
And our knicker-seats were thin,
There was double-barrelled joy —
Nickin’ in!

“Peanuts, apples, lemonade!”
Yelled the gallery man of old
While his aitches round were sprayed
As the bob-a-nob he strolled.
Pelting patrons in the stalls
With a nut we couldn’t crack,
Swopping cheeky catawauls
With the urchin round the back;
Spiking many a pig-tailed Chow
With a programme and a pin,
It was better then than now —
Nickin’ in!

Byways dark in little Bourke
Lanes familiar to a few;
Every dodge and every lurk
In our urchinhood we knew:
Portals where we’d cautious creep
As a printer’s boy or page;
Past the Cer’brus half asleep
To the splendourland of Stage.
Unmolested in the maze
Of the play’s dramatic din,
They were happy, halcyon days —
Nickin’ in!

Come we now in motor cars.
When the overture begins.
A jazz-band’s broken bars,
Assaulted drums and tins.
But the playhouse holds no joy.
The circus has no tricks
That brightened up the boy
Who nutted in for nix.
It was dash between his legs,
And the speediest would win!
Existence had no dregs —
Nickin’ in!

Operas come and operas go;
Concerts, comedies, revues;
Farces ebb and farces flow,
Pantos score and pantos lose;
But our half-a-guinea seat,
Or whatever funds afford,
Isn’t half as snug and sweet,
As our boyhood gall’ry board;
And when someone threw a smile,
When we gave a sprat a spin,
Life was really worth the while —
Nickin’ in!



Source:
Edwin Greenslade Murphy, Dryblower’s Verses, Perth, W.A.: E. G. Murphy, 1926, pages 63-64

Previously published (with some differences) in:
The Sunday Times (Perth, WA), 22 February 1920, p. 4

Editor’s notes:
brilliantine = an oily perfumed hairdressing, used by men so as to make their hair glossy

drest = an archaic form of the word “dressed”

halcyon = carefree, happy, joyful; prosperous, successful, wealthy; calm, peaceful

little Bourke = Little Bourke Street, Melbourne

nix = nothing, zero (from the German “nichts”, meaning nothing); no; a rejection; to disagree, prohibit, or reject (also, in German mythology, a water being, sometimes described as a demon or monster, which is half-human and half-fish)

panto = pantomime

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

The Institute of Australian Culture
Heritage, history, and heroes. Writers, workers, and wages. 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
Significant events and commemorative dates
A list of significant Australiana
Australian slang
Books (full text)
Australian explorers
Australian literature
Recommended poetry
Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
Poetry and songs, 1901-1954
Rock music and pop music (videos)
Folk music and bush music (videos)
Early music (videos)
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

Barcroft Boake
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

  • Died on Active Service / Heroes of the Empire [Australian military personnel (WW1, WW2), 24 April 1943]
  • Flooded house on Villiers Street, Grafton (NSW) [postcard, circa 1950]
  • Fossicker’s claim, Daylesford [postcard, circa 1905-1912]
  • The Bathing Beach Flinders [postcard, early 20th Century]
  • The Lass of Yackandandah [poem, 11 June 1857]

Top Posts & Pages

  • Australian slang, words, and phrases
  • The Man from Snowy River [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • Flooded house on Villiers Street, Grafton (NSW) [postcard, circa 1950]
  • Drop Bears

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

  • Keith Street on Flooded house on Villiers Street, Grafton (NSW) [postcard, circa 1950]
  • IAC on Those Names [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • Paul on Those Names [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • Floyd Black on Eurunderee [poem by Henry Lawson]
  • Warren fahey on The Institute of Australian Culture: An introduction

For Australia

Copyright © 2025 · Log in