Poem

Break o' Day

by Henry Lawson · 1905

You love me, you say, and I think you do,    But I know so many who don’t,And how can I say I’ll be true to you    When I know very well that I won’t?I have journeyed long and my goal is far,    I love, but I cannot bide,For as sure as rises the morning star,    With the break of day I’ll ride.
        I was doomed to ruin or doomed to mar            The home wherever I stay,        But I’ll think of you as the morning star            And they call me Break o’ Day.
They well might have named me the Fall o’ Night,    For drear is the track I mark,But I love fair girls and I love the light,    For I and my tribe were dark.You may love me dear, for a day and night,    You may cast your life aside;But as sure as the morning star shines bright    With the break of day I’ll ride.
There was never a lover so proud and kind,    There was never a friend so true;But the song of my life I have left behind    In the heart of a girl like you.There was never so deep or cruel a wrong    In the land that is far away,There was never so bitter a broken heart    That rode at the break of day.
God bless you, dear, with your red-gold hair    And your pitying eyes of grey—Oh! my heart forbids that a star so fair    Should be marred by the Break o’ Day.Live on, my girl, as the girl you are,    Be a good and a true man’s bride,For as sure as beckons the evening star    With the fall o’ night I’ll ride.
        I was born to ruin or born to mar            The home wherever I light.        Oh! I wish that you were the Evening Star            And that I were the Fall o’ Night.
Sources, publication & text notesReference details
Canonical recordPOEM-000253
Copy-textWhen I Was King and Other Verses (1905), Project Gutenberg Australia, Break o’ Day; selected copy-text retained exactly; wording and line/stanza structure independently confirmed against University of Sydney Library SETIS PDF prepared from the 1906 print edition, PDF pp. 96–97 (digital viewer node 12085)
Source recordSRC-000068
Rights determinationRGT-000465
Text statusCANONICAL TEXT READY
TranscriptionDIPLOMATIC_D208_D180

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