George Essex Evans

“ Grey is the weary world, and grey is the heart of
me!
Into my shadowy heart pierce like the star of old,
Pearl of the tender dawn, kissed by the trembling
gold!
Sing me the hope made sure, sing me the heart made
strong! ”

“ Sleeping in the streaming light,
For deep trance is o'er the land,
And the wings of peace.
Here, Power that moves the heart,
Thou art in the quiet air;
Here, unvexed of code or creed,
Man may breathe his bitter need ”

“ From the forelands of the Future they are waiting
our reply!
We can face the roughest weather
If we only hold together,
Marching forward to the Future, marching shoulder-
firm together,
For the Nation yet to be.
All the greyness of the dawning, all the mists are
over-past,
In the glory of the morning we shall see Her face at
last. ”

“ Like weary sea-birds spent with flight
And faltering,
The slow hours beat across the night
On leaden wing.
The wild bird knows where rest shall be
Soe'er he roam,
Heart of my heart! apart from thee
I have no home. ”

“ The drought-cursed ground, the dying stock, the water thick as ink,
But—the drinking craze was on them, and they had no grog to drink!
Then with a bound up from the ground,
M‘Carthy jumped and cried: “’Tis vain! ’Tis vain! I go insane. These pangs in my inside! ”

“ O'er all our Austral hills and leas
One sombre tone.
Whence doth the mournful keynote start?
From the pure depths of Nature's heart?
Or from the heart of him who sings
And deems his hand upon the strings
Is Nature's own? ”

“ And silence, like the touch of God, sinks deep into the breast—
Perchance He hears and understands the Women of the West.
For them no trumpet sounds the call, no poet plies his arts—
They only hear the beating of their gallant, loving hearts. ”

“ M'Kinlay Jim straight answered him: “Those lotions, sauce, and things
Should surely make a brew to slake these thirstful sufferings—
A brew that slakes, a brew that wakes and burns and bucks and stings.” ”

“ Or, where the streaming mist's white rollers climb
The dark ravine and precipice sublime—
A filmy sea that twines and intertwines
Wreathes the low hills, and veils the mighty lines
Of sovran mountains, crimsoned and aglow
In crystal pomp, crested with jewelled snow;
But still, with souls afire, men seek that land,
And die in deep morass and shifting sand.
To those alone its iron gates are free,
Who find, within their hearts, the secret key ”

“ Where the soul of a man is warped and sunk to the
soul of a mere machine,
In the flash of the wire to west and north, in the hum
of the restless street,
In the pulse of the toiling press that beats all night
in a fever heat,
Where the weary brain and the pen plod on 'neath
the white electric light–
Tho' we fail and fall still the fight goes on ”

“ Into the dreamer's heart, sad in the lonely night–
Call like the ring of steel and thrill as of bugles
blown,
Splendours of days to be, flaming in skies unknown.
Deep in the eastern skies glimmers that phantom star;
Dim in the distance dies the surge of the world afar. ”

“ Knee-deep in shallowy retreat.
O mellow air! O sunny light!
O Hope and Youth that pass away!
Inscribe in letters of delight
Upon each heart one golden day–
To be there set
When we forget
There is a joy in living yet! ”

“ Far in the fray
Where the old war-worn standard waves, and dare —
Beside those glorious folds — to plant it there!
When furious and fast the battle runs,
Australia's eyes will watch her soldier sons. ”

“ Pale Wayfarers, whose noiseless tread
ls near me as I seem to see
The mighty generations dead,
And all that yet shall be!
Are Past and Future, then, a breath
That one vast Present makes its own?
The Angel, Birth, the Shadow, Death;
Each guard a world unknown. ”

“ Draw round us in this hour of fate–
Here, where thy children's children stand
With unseen lips, O consecrate
And bless the land!
Eternal Power, benign, supreme,
Who weigh'st the nations upon earth ”

“ Hangs the great silence like a pall
Softer than snow.
Not sorrow is the spell it brings,
But thoughts of calmer, purer things,
Like the sweet touch of hands we love,
A woman's tenderness above
A fevered brow. ”

“ As slowly moving home again
The lazy vanguard feeds along
To the waters cool
Of the tree-fringed pool
In the distant creek when the noon is full.
Slip girth and let the old horse graze;
The noon grows heavy on the air. ”

“ My burning lips are cracked and dry,
I hear the Spirit of the Drouth
Whisper "Thou soon shalt die."
The living shadow of a man,
The living shadow of a horse,
Thro' heat and glare, in grim despair,
We stagger on our unknown course. ”

“ When he calls his whelps about him,
When he sets the goal before him and he settles to the pace.
Tricked and wounded! Are we beaten
Though they hold our strength at play?
We have faced these things aforetimes, long ago, long ago. ”

“ None can know Thee what Thou art,
Fathomless! Unknown!
This work is in the public domain in Australia because it was created in Australia and the term of copyright has expired. According to Australian Copyright Council - Duration of Copyright, the following works are public domain:
published non-government works whose author died before January 1, 1955, anonymous or pseudonymous works and photographs published before January 1, 1955, and government works published more than 50 years ago (before January 1, 1973) . ”

“ We pledge tbee faith that shall not swerve,
Our Land, Our Lady, breathing high
The thought that makes it lore to serve,
And life to die!
Now are thy maidens linked in love
Who erst have striven for pride of place ”