Bringing Home The Cows By Banjo Paterson
Bush Courting In Colonial Times
This sentimental ballad depicts an idyllic countryside courtship between two young lovers meeting at dusk as the farming day ends.
Paterson employs soothing pastoral imagery to set the scene – bells ringing, idle ploughs, birds calling, cattle browsing. References to neatly plowed fields convey tranquility.

The Old Bush Songs
by Banjo Patterson
As his sweetheart Mary approaches, vivid details create an aura of innocent romance – her singing, rosy cheeks, modest air. The speaker’s passion is roused by her grace and virtue.
Their polite exchanges and respectful arm-in-arm stroll reinforce the wholesome mood. Paterson portrays devoted, proper wooing leading to marriage once the cows are ultimately brought home.
While quaint, the poem provides a glimpse of romantic ideals surrounding courting in Paterson’s era. Rural life fosters a peaceful connection in tune with nature. Shared dreams promise domestic bliss.
So through sentimental lyricism, “Bringing Home the Cows” offers a window into Australian pastoral culture’s nostalgia for chaste, mannerly courtship. Paterson charmingly mythologizes love’s rituals in the bush.
BRINGING HOME THE COWS
Shadows of the twilight falling
On the mountain’s brow,
To each other birds are calling,
In the leafy bough.
Where the daisies are a-springing,
And the cattle bells are ringing,
Comes my Mary, gaily singing,
Bringing home the cows.
By a bush the pathway skirted,
Room for two allows.
All the cornfields are deserted,
Idle are the ploughs.
Striving for wealth’s spoil and booty,
Farmer boys have finished duty,
When I meet my little beauty,
Bringing home the cows.
Tender words and kind addresses,
Most polite of bows,
Rosy cheeks and wavy tresses
Do my passions rouse
Dress so natty and so cleanly,
Air so modest and so queenly.
Oh! so haughty, yet serenely,
Bringing home the cows.
Arm-in-arm together walking,
While the cattle browse,
Earnestly together talking,
Plighting lovers’ vows.
Where the daisies are a-springing,
Wedding bells will soon be ringing,
Then we’ll watch our servant bringing
Mine and Mary’s cows.