Dustjacket synopsis:
"Edward George Dyson, born in March 1865 at Morrisons, Victoria, spent much of his early life roving about mining camps and farms. He was the son of a mining engineer who had migrated to Australia in 1852 and as a boy soon learned to share his father's love of bushmen and miners. Edward began work at 12 as an assistant to a travelling draper and later worked in a mine. At 19, after a spell in a newspaper office, he began writing verse. His brothers, Ambrose and William, both had notable careers in journalism. Rhymes From the Mines was Edward Dyson's first volume of poems. It contains many poems that have appeared continually in collections of the best Australian poetry including The Old Whim Horse, The Emu of Whroo and To the Men of the Mines. Dyson continued to write of miners, bushmen and life in Melbourne factories until his death at 76 in 1931. He was, because of his remarkable output, one of the most successful freelance journalists Australia has produced, a man with a deep love for those who endured the hard conditions that prevailed in Australian mines and farms in the decades before and after federation."

Preface by the author
The greater part of the material contained in this volume has appeared in the pages of The Bulletin, Sydney, from time to time during the last eight years. "The Rescue" and "Peter Simson's Farm" were published originally in the Melbourne Argus. I have to thank the proprietors of both journals for their coutesy in permitting me to reproduce the verses.

Several pieces, including "Waiting for Water," "The Prospectors," "The Tale of Steven," and "The Deserted Homestead," are now printed for the first time.

EDWARD DYSON

Contents:

To the Men of the Mines

Rhymes from the Mines and Others

The Old Whim Horse
Cleaning Up
The Rescue
Bashful Gleeson
The Worked-Out Mine
German Joe
Waiting for Water
When Brother Peetree Prayed
The Old Camp-Oven
When the Bell Blew Up
The Trucker
'Stop-and-See'
In 'The Benevolent'
Jonah's Luck
Night Shift
A Friendly Game of Football
The Tale of Steven
The Fossicker
The Tin-Pot Mill
A Poor Joke
"Breaking it Gently"
Struck it at Last
The Prospectors

Other Lines

Peter Simson's Farm
Since Nellie Came to Live Along the Creek
The Freak
In Town
The Deserted Homestead
A New Girl Up at White's
Whose Wife
Battered Bob
The Splitter
To the Theoretical Selector
Bullocky Bill
The Drovers in Reply
The Shanty
Ah Ling, the Leper
The Emu of Whroo

From the Jack Pollard Pty Ltd paperback edition, 1973.