The Motor Car
By Henry Lawson
The motor car is sullen, like a thing that should not be;
The motor car is master of Smart Society.
Twas born of sweated genius and collared by a clown;
Twas planned by Retribution to ride its riders down.
And straight for Caesars Column,
It runs to Caesars Column,
Last section, Caesars Column
To ride its riders down!
The motor car is shame-struck, for greed and misery,
For mad and hopeless self-lust, and the sins that need not be.
The motor car is vicious, for its conscience makes it so,
It aye would smash the victims while it runs the riders low.
And straight for Caesars Column,
Its goal is Caesars Column,
It longs for Caesars Column
To lay its riders low.
The motor car is maddened like a horse thats had a fright,
The shameful day behind it and the Coming of the Night!
It flees across the country and it flees back to the town
And straight for Caesars Column to run its riders down.
And straight for Caesars Column,
What ho! for Caesars Column!
Hurrah! for Caesars Column!
To seal its riders down.
The motor car is reckless like a gambler losing fast;
The motor cars in terror of the Future, and the Past;
The motor car is worn out and has passed Sins boundary by,
And is bound for Caesars Column where to pile its riders high.
Its bound for Caesars Column
And marked for Caesars Column,
And doomed for Caesars Column
To pile its riders high.
The motor car is brainless, and scornful of all tears,
Its dust is in our faces, its giggle in our ears,
Its harsh laugh is the last laugh of the last lost soul alone,
Tis nearing Caesars Column to set self-damned in stone.
Change here for Caesars Column!
All out for Caesars Column!
Past Hope, and Caesars Column
To lodge self-damned in stone.
I dont know how twill happen, or when twill come to pass,
But folk shall yet pass sanely by river, tree and grass;
By homesteads and farm wagons, theyll ride each pleasant mile,
And back from Caesars Column where the world went mad awhile.
And back from Caesars Column
With lessons from the Column;
Grown sane at Caesars Column
To save the world awhile.