an anthology of australian verse-第15章
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How did it go?
Only we know;
Sing it; sweetheart; to…night;
As you did long ago。
James Lister Cuthbertson。
Australia Federata
Australia! land of lonely lake
And serpent…haunted fen;
Land of the torrent and the fire
And forest…sundered men:
Thou art not now as thou shalt be
When the stern invaders come;
In the hush before the hurricane;
The dread before the drum。
A louder thunder shall be heard
Than echoes on thy shore;
When o'er the blackened basalt cliffs
The foreign cannon roar
When the stand is made in the sheoaks' shade
When heroes fall for thee;
And the creeks in gloomy gullies run
Dark crimson to the sea:
When under honeysuckles gray;
And wattles' swaying gold;
The stalwart arm may strike no more;
The valiant heart is cold
When thou shalt know the agony;
The fever; and the strife
Of those who wrestle against odds
For liberty and life:
Then is the great Dominion born;
The seven sisters bound;
From Sydney's greenly wooded port
To lone King George's Sound
Then shall the islands of the south;
The lands of bloom and snow;
Forth from their isolation come
To meet the common foe。
Then; only then when after war
Is peace with honour born;
When from the bosom of the night
Comes golden…sandalled morn;
When laurelled victory is thine;
And the day of battle done;
Shall the heart of a mighty people stir;
And Australia be as one。
At Cape Schanck
Down to the lighthouse pillar
The rolling woodland comes;
Gay with the gold of she…oaks
And the green of the stunted gums;
With the silver…grey of honeysuckle;
With the wasted bracken red;
With a tuft of softest emerald
And a cloud…flecked sky o'erhead。
We climbed by ridge and boulder;
Umber and yellow scarred;
Out to the utmost precipice;
To the point that was ocean…barred;
Till we looked below on the fastness
Of the breeding eagle's nest;
And Cape Wollomai opened eastward
And the Otway on the west。
Over the mirror of azure
The purple shadows crept;
League upon league of rollers
Landward evermore swept;
And burst upon gleaming basalt;
And foamed in cranny and crack;
And mounted in sheets of silver;
And hurried reluctant back。
And the sea; so calm out yonder;
Wherever we turned our eyes;
Like the blast of an angel's trumpet
Rang out to the earth and skies;
Till the reefs and the rocky ramparts
Throbbed to the giant fray;
And the gullies and jutting headlands
Were bathed in a misty spray。
Oh; sweet in the distant ranges;
To the ear of inland men;
Is the ripple of falling water
In sassafras…haunted glen;
The stir in the ripening cornfield
That gently rustles and swells;
The wind in the wattle sighing;
The tinkle of cattle bells。
But best is the voice of ocean;
That strikes to the heart and brain;
That lulls with its passionate music
Trouble and grief and pain;
That murmurs the requiem sweetest
For those who have loved and lost;
And thunders a jubilant anthem
To brave hearts tempest…tossed。
That takes to its boundless bosom
The burden of all our care;
That whispers of sorrow vanquished;
Of hours that may yet be fair;
That tells of a Harbour of Refuge
Beyond life's stormy straits;
Of an infinite peace that gladdens;
Of an infinite love that waits。
Wattle and Myrtle
Gold of the tangled wilderness of wattle;
Break in the lone green hollows of the hills;
Flame on the iron headlands of the ocean;
Gleam on the margin of the hurrying rills。
Come with thy saffron diadem and scatter
Odours of Araby that haunt the air;
Queen of our woodland; rival of the roses;
Spring in the yellow tresses of thy hair。
Surely the old gods; dwellers on Olympus;
Under thy shining loveliness have strayed;
Crowned with thy clusters; magical Apollo;
Pan with his reedy music may have played。
Surely within thy fastness; Aphrodite;
She of the sea…ways; fallen from above;
Wandered beneath thy canopy of blossom;
Nothing disdainful of a mortal's love。
Aye; and Her sweet breath lingers on the wattle;
Aye; and Her myrtle dominates the glade;
And with a deep and perilous enchantment
Melts in the heart of lover and of maid。
The Australian Sunrise
The Morning Star paled slowly; the Cross hung low to the sea;
And down the shadowy reaches the tide came swirling free;
The lustrous purple blackness of the soft Australian night;
Waned in the gray awakening that heralded the light;
Still in the dying darkness; still in the forest dim
The pearly dew of the dawning clung to each giant limb;
Till the sun came up from ocean; red with the cold sea mist;
And smote on the limestone ridges; and the shining tree…tops kissed;
Then the fiery Scorpion vanished; the magpie's note was heard;
And the wind in the she…oak wavered; and the honeysuckles stirred;
The airy golden vapour rose from the river breast;
The kingfisher came darting out of his crannied nest;
And the bulrushes and reed…beds put off their sallow gray
And burnt with cloudy crimson at dawning of the day。
John Farrell。
Australia to England
June 22nd; 1897
What of the years of Englishmen?
What have they brought of growth and grace
Since mud…built London by its fen
Became the Briton's breeding…place?
What of the Village; where our blood
Was brewed by sires; half man; half brute;
In vessels of wild womanhood;
From blood of Saxon; Celt and Jute?
What are its gifts; this Harvest Home
Of English tilth and English cost;
Where fell the hamlet won by Rome
And rose the city that she lost?
O! terrible and grand and strange
Beyond all phantasy that gleams
When Hope; asleep; sees radiant Change
Come to her through the halls of dreams!
A heaving sea of life; that beats
Like England's heart of pride to…day;
And up from roaring miles of streets
Flings on the roofs its human spray;
And fluttering miles of flags aflow;
And cannon's voice; and boom of bell;
And seas of fire to…night; as though
A hundred cities flamed and fell;
While; under many a fair festoon
And flowering crescent; set ablaze
With all the dyes that English June
Can lend to deck a day of days;
And past where mart and palace rise;
And shrine and temple lift their spears;
Below five million misted eyes
Goes a grey Queen of Sixty Years
Go lords; and servants of the lords
Of earth; with homage on their lips;
And kinsmen carrying English swords;
And offering England battle…ships;
And tribute…payers; on whose hands
Their English fetters scarce appear;
And gathered round from utmost lands
Ambassadors of Love and Fear!
Dim signs of greeting waved afar;
Far trumpets blown and flags unfurled;
And England's name an Avatar
Of light and sound throughout the world
Hailed Empress among nations; Queen
Enthroned in solemn majesty;
On splendid proofs of what has been;
And presages of what will be!
For this your sons; foreseeing not
Or heeding not; the aftermath;
Because their strenuous hearts were hot
Went first on many a cruel path;
And; trusting first and last to blows;
Fed death with such as would gainsay
Their instant passing; or oppose
With talk of Right strength's right of way!
For this their names are on the stone
Of mountain spires; and carven trees
That stand in flickering wastes unknown
Wait with their dying messages;
When fire blasts dance with desert drifts
The English bones show white below;
And; not so white; when summer lifts
The counterpane of Yukon's snow。
Condemned by blood to reach for grapes
That hang in sight; however high;
Beyond the smoke of Asian capes;
The nameless; dauntless; dead one