The Pannikin Poet

There's nothing here sublime,
But just a roving rhyme,
Run off to pass the time,
With nought titanic in
The theme that it supports
And, though it treats of quarts,
It's bare of golden thoughts —
It's just a pannikin.

I think it's rather hard
That each Australian bard —
Each wan, poetic card —
With thoughts galvanic in
His fiery soul alight,
In wild aerial flight,
Will sit him down and write
About a pannikin.

He makes some new chum fare
From out his English lair
To hunt the native bear,
That curious mannikin;
And then when times get bad
That wand'ring English lad
Writes out a message sad
Upon his pannikin:

'Oh, mother, think of me
Beneath the wattle tree.'
(For you may bet that he
Will drag the wattle in.)
'Oh, mother, here I think
That I shall have to sink
There ain't a single drink
The water bottle in.'

The dingo homeward hies,
The sooty crows uprise
And caw their fierce surprise
A tone Satanic in;
And bearded bushmen tread
Around the sleeper's head —
'See here — the bloke is dead.'
'Now, where's his pannikin?'

They read his words and weep,
And lay him down to sleep
Where wattle branches sweep
A style mechanic in;
And, reader, that's the way
The poets of today
Spin out their little lay
About a pannikin.