Said Grenfell To My Spirit
By Henry Lawson
Said Grenfell to my spirit, "Youve been writing very free
Of the charms of other places, and you dont remember me.
You have claimed another native place and think its Natures law,
Since you never paid a visit to a town you never saw:
So you sing of Mudgee Mountains, willowed stream and grassy flat:
But I put a charm upon you and you wont get over that."
O said Grenfell to my spirit, "Though you write of breezy peaks,
Golden Gullies, wattle sidings, and the pools in sheoak creeks,
Of the place your kin were born in and the childhood that you knew,
And your fathers distant Norway (though it has some claim on you),
Though you sing of dear old Mudgee and the home on Pipeclay Flat,
You were born on Grenfell goldfield, and you cant get over that."