REEDY RIVER Henry Lawson (1896) [bracketed] verses usually deleted from the sung version [Ten miles down Reedy River A pool of water lies, And all the year it mirrors The changes in the skies, And in that pool's broad bosom Is room for all the stars; Its bed of sand has drifted O'er countless rocky bars.] [Around the lower edges There waves a bed of reeds, Where water rats are hidden And where the wild duck breeds; And grassy slopes rise gently To ridges long and low, Where groves of wattle flourish And native bluebells grow. ] [Beneath the granite ridges The eye may just discern Where Rocky Creek emerges From deep green banks of fern; And standing tall between them, The grassy she-oaks cool The hard, blue-tinted waters Before they reach the pool. ] Ten miles down Reedy River One Sunday afternoon, I rode with Mary Campbell To that broad, bright lagoon; We left our horses grazing Till shadows climbed the peak, And strolled beneath the she-oaks On the banks of Rocky Creek. Then home along the river That night we rode a race, And the moonlight lent a glory To Mary Campbell's face; And I pleaded for our future All through that moonlight ride, Until our weary horses Drew closer side by side. Ten miles from Ryan's Crossing And five miles below the peak, I built a little homestead On the banks of Rocky Creek; I cleared the land and fenced it And ploughed the rich, red loam, And my first crop was golden When I brought my Mary home. [Now still down Reedy River The grassy she-oaks sigh, And the water-holes still mirror The pictures in the sky; And over all for ever Go sun and moon and stars, While the golden sand is drifting Across the rocky bars ] But of the hut I builded There are no traces now. And many rains have levelled The furrows of the plough; And my bright days are olden, For the twisted branches wave And the wattle blossoms golden On the hill by Mary's grave.