Poem

Ben Boyd’s Tower

by Henry Lawson · 1910

Ben Boyd’s Tower is watching—
    Watching o’er the sea;
Ben Boyd’s Tower is waiting
    For her and me.
        We do not know the day,
        We do not know the hour,
        But we know that we shall meet
        By Ben Boyd’s Tower.
Moonlight peoples Boyd Tower,
    Mystic are its walls;
Lightly dance the lovers
    In its haunted halls.
        Ben Boyd’s Tower is watching—
        Watching o’er the foam;
        Ben Boyd’s Tower is waiting
        Till the “Wanderer” comes home.
O! he lay above us—
    High above the surf—
Finger-nails and toe-caps
    Digging in the turf.
        We do not know the day,
        We do not know the hour,
        But Two and Two shall meet again
        By Ben Boyd’s Tower.
There’s an ancient dame in Eden—
    Basket on her arm—
And she goes down the Main Street
    From the old, old farm.
        Hood drawn on her forehead—
        Withered dame and grey—
        She never looks on Boyd Tower
        Out across the Bay.
Bright eyes in the ballroom,
    Coquetting with two,
Just for love of mischief,
    As a girl will do.
A quarrel in the bar-room—
    All within the hour—
And four men rode from Boyd Town
    To Ben Boyd’s Tower.
Sources, publication & text notesReference details
Canonical recordPOEM-000046
Copy-textHenry Lawson — The Skyline Riders and Other Verses; selected digital copy-text retained exactly; complete University of Sydney institutional edition independently corroborates substantive wording and meaningful selected-copy layout under D-180/D-208
Source recordSRC-000001
Rights determinationRGT-001028
Text statusCANONICAL TEXT READY
TranscriptionDIPLOMATIC_D180_D208

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