• 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

The Honeymoon Train [poem by A.G. Stephens]

22 September 2012 · Leave a Comment

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

The Honeymoon Train.

Hark how the chill westerly rattles the windows!
I ’ll draw up my chair to the side of the fire:
That new book, I fancy, must wait till to-morrow —
I ’m lazy, and old eyes so easily tire.

By George! good cigar, this! Nell chose it, and lit it,
And thrust me in here till she clears things away:
A nice little dinner she gave me this evening —
Soup, fish, pâté, salad and cheese — all O.K.

Dear Nellie! Heigho, as I stare at the embers,
The years roll away down their dusty old track:
I mind well the first time I saw her — at Harry’s —
Her father was dead: she was still wearing black.

All black, with an old-fashioned brooch made of silver,
And châtelaine of silver, and quaint silver belt,
She looked — how she looked! . . there, that coal in the centre!
That’s she! . . ah, the picture’s beginning to melt.

In three months we married — let’s see — eighteen-ninety:
Just forty years gone — how the time slips away!
The thirteenth — no, was it? — the fifteenth — yes, fifteenth:
Why, hang it! we ’re forty years married to-day!

Whew! now je comprends — all those little side glances!
Her colour, her chatter, the dress that she wore!
The wine, this cigar! why, I smelt something extra —
Old duffer I was not to see it before!

All years ago? Nonsense! it happened this morning —
The wedding, the breakfast, the table all set
And people all glaring — O Lord! they encored me!
A dream! no, I feel the rice down my back yet.

And then comes a mist, but I know at the station
I wrung the guard’s hand: did he think me insane?
Then handkerchiefs waving — “Good-bye and God bless you!”
A whistle! we ’re off by the honeymoon train!

That journey! O, Paradise holds nothing sweeter!
(What bliss can be bought for a twelve shilling fare!)
With Nell on my knee (she got off at the stations)
Pretending to scold when I let down her hair.

And now we ’ve arrived, and had welcome and dinner,
And Nell for a moment has gone to our room —
Our room! O delicious! — I think that ’s her footstep:
We ’ll sit — not too long — and spend love in the gloom.

“Cigar out! No gas lit!” My dear, I’ve been dozing! . .
How well you look, Nellie! your eyes shine again.
What, kisses! Hang grey hairs! I ’m gay three-and-twenty —
God bless us! we’re off by the honeymoon train.

A. G. Stephens.



Source:
A.G. Stephens (editor), The Bulletin Reciter: A Collection of Verses for Recitation from “The Bulletin” [1880-1901], Sydney: The Bulletin Newspaper Company, 1902 [first published 1901], pages 229-231

Filed Under: poetry Tagged With: A. G. Stephens (1865-1933) (author), 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

  • Australia Day [26 January 1953]
  • Australia Day [24 January 1953]
  • Australia Day [29 January 1951]
  • Australia Day [28 January 1950]
  • Danger-signals from Australia [2 January 1942]

Top Posts & Pages

  • Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
  • Dollars or rum: Early Australian currency [by J. H. M. Abbott, 1 April 1931]
  • Australian slang
  • The Man from Snowy River [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • The Bastard from the Bush [poem, circa 1900]

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

  • rob buntine on No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest [poem by Mary Gilmore, 29 June 1940]
  • Carol on Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
  • Annie Crestani on Under the Southern Cross I Stand [the Australian cricket team’s victory song]
  • Peter Pearsall on The Clarence [poem by Jack Moses]
  • Trevor Hurst on Timeline of Australian history and culture

For Australia

Copyright © 2023 · Log in