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Paterson is a well known poet and voice from the Land Down Under.
He penned the Man from Snowy River, a collection of poems that became an internationally acclaimed film about a young man’s coming of age and the assertion of his place in a small rural society at a time that parallels the Old West in North America.
On the outer Barcoo where the churches are few,
And men of religion are scanty,
On a road never cross'd 'cept by folk that are lost,
One Michael Magee had a shanty.
Now this Mike was the dad
of a ten year old lad,
Plump, healthy, and stoutly conditioned;
He was strong as the best,
but poor Mike had no rest
For the youngster had never been christened.
And his wife used to cry,
"If the darlin' should die
St. Peter wouldnt recognize him."
But by luck he survived
till a preacher arrived,
Who agreed straightaway to
baptise him.
Now the artful young rogue,
while they held their collogue,
With his ear to the keyhole was
listenin',
And he muttered in fright,
while his features turned white,
"What the divil and all is this christenin'?"
He was none of your dolts,
he had seen them brand colts,
And it seemed to his small
understanding,
If the man in the frock
made him one of the flock,
It must mean something
very like branding.
So away with a rush
he set off for the bush,
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