• 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

Don’t Let the Moth Get In! [poem by T.A. Wilson]

22 September 2012 · Leave a Comment

[Editor: This poem by T.A. Wilson was published in The Bulletin Reciter, 1901.]

Don’t Let the Moth Get In!

I overhauled an overcoat of mine the other day,
In the blazing months of summer it was brushed and laid away ;
But the nipping nights of autumn spoke of winter coming fast,
And hints of frost and sleet were borne upon the shivering blast.
The garment long had stood the test of bleak and bitter weather,
But now it lay before me and its threads scarce clung together ;
With many a hole in breast and back, with nap and fur grown thin,
It told of cold times coming — I had let the moth get in!

There’s a moth, my fellow-trav’ler, on the rugged road of care,
And its food is human weakness, and its name is black Despair !
But the man who claims to manhood, be his sorrow what it may.
He will boldly face the demon, and await a better day.
Times are bad ? Aye, well we know it, but each true man has his goal:
Can he fight misfortune better when the rust is in his soul ?
Show your pluck, my suffering brother ! though your coat is poor and thin.
Square your chest, and laugh at Fortune — and don’t let the moth get in !

There are some worse off than you are — though the pious turn away,
Though your old friends do not know you — well, you ’re better off than they !
If to-night you ’re smoking tea-leaves, and your bed is the Domain,
Shake the dews off in the morning : up, and breast the world again !
Ere the dawning, night is darkest, I have heard old proverbs say ;
So we’ll keep our muscles moving, and be ready for the day,
And be thankful, while we suffered, that we bore it with a grin,
And while our clothes were shabby, kept the moth from getting in !

T. A. Wilson.



Source:
A.G. Stephens (editor). The Bulletin Reciter: A Collection of Verses for Recitation from “The Bulletin” [1880-1901], The Bulletin Newspaper Company, Sydney, 1902 [first published 1901], pages 110-111

Filed Under: poetry Tagged With: poem, SourceArchiveOrg, The Bulletin Reciter (1901), year1901

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

  • Boy soldiers: Cadets fine physique [29 March 1911]
  • Military: Notes for senior cadets [1 March 1911]
  • Compulsory military training [letter to the editor, from “Little Red Riding Hood”, 11 February 1911]
  • Compulsory military training [letter to the editor, from “Mary…”, 11 February 1911]
  • Compulsory military training [letter to the editor, from the Rev. William Shaw, 11 February 1911]

Top Posts & Pages

  • Taking His Chance [poem by Henry Lawson]
  • Timeline of Australian history and culture
  • Australian slang
  • The Man from Snowy River [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • The Complete Inner History of the Kelly Gang and Their Pursuers [by J. J. Kenneally]

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 [Group of Australian soldiers, or soldier-cadets] [postcard, WW1 era (1914-1918)]
  • Raymond on [Group of Australian soldiers, or soldier-cadets] [postcard, WW1 era (1914-1918)]
  • IAC on Australia Shearing [postcard, 1907]
  • Raymond on Australia Shearing [postcard, 1907]
  • Raymond on Advance Australia [postcard, WW1 era (1914-1918)]

For Australia

Copyright © 2023 · Log in