I wonder why we in Texas don’t wax lyrical about the fates of our poachers and rustlers? Maybe because we were dominated by cattlemen rather than sheepherders and a cow is a much more valuable animal? Which is odd in a way because a cow is, dairy aside, a one ... ah ... “use” critter where a single sheep can keep contributing its wool.
Whatever the prevailing circumstances, the man must have known the sheep belonged to someone else. Wild domesticated sheep just don’t happen. The song neither celebrates his death nor lionizes him. It seemingly presents the facts about a hard time.
I'm pretty sure that didn't come out exactly the way you intended.
Waltzing Matilda digs deep into the Australian experience. It is a status symbol in Australia to have a convict ancestor. Some of their ancestors were imprisoned in England and deported for stealing a piece of bread to eat. In the song when the swagman is caught stealing a sheep, presumably to eat since he is in the middle of nowhere, he kills himself rather than be taken prisoner and sent to jail. The song addresses poverty, homelessness, loneliness, hunger, class differences, and freedom.
I lived in Australia for a year and one of the most moving experiences I ever had was witnessing thousands of Australians singing Waltzing Matilda on the banks of the Swan River on Australia Day.
“I wonder why we in Texas don’t wax lyrical about the fates of our poachers and rustlers? “
Probably the same reason y’all have guns and the Aussies don’t.
. . .”“use” critter where a single sheep can keep contributing its wool”
Can’t eat wool but STEAK, grilled over Mesquite, is gawds food.