While The Billy BoilsSearchIt is well when you've lived in clover, To mourn for the days gone by--Would I live the same life over Could I live again? Not I!But, knowing the false from the real, I would strive to ascend--I would seek out my boyhood's ideal, And follow it to the end.
Poem
A Backward Glance
by Henry Lawson · 1897
Sources, publication & text notesReference details
Canonical recordPOEM-000178
Copy-textProject Gutenberg Australia, Collected Poems of Henry Lawson (2022), anchor p1; selected digital copy-text retained exactly; wording and layout confirmed against Ironbark Resources under D-180
Source recordSRC-000066
Rights determinationRGT-000415
Text statusCANONICAL TEXT READY
TranscriptionDIPLOMATIC_D208_D180
While The Billy Boils · Public-domain text · www.whilethebillyboils.com.au/poems/a-backward-glance