The Poems of Henry Kendall | Page 9

might have been,?Had not an evil spirit crept?Across the tranquil scene:?Had fervent feelings in your soul?Not failed nor ceased to shine?As pure as those existing on,?And burning still in mine.?Had every treasure at your feet?That I was wont to pour,?Been never thrown like worthless weeds?Upon a barren shore!
The bitter edge of grief has passed,?I would not now upbraid;?Or count to you the broken vows,?So often idly made!?I would not cross your path to chase?The falsehood from your brow --?I ~know~, with all that borrowed light,?You are not happy now:?Since those that once have trampled down?Affection's early claim,?Have lost a peace they need not hope?To find on earth again.
Aileen
A splendid sun betwixt the trees?Long spikes of flame did shoot,?When turning to the fragrant South,?With longing eyes and burning mouth,?I stretched a hand athwart the drouth,?And plucked at cooling fruit.
So thirst was quenched, and hastening on?With strength returned to me,?I set my face against the noon,?And reached a denser forest soon;?Which dipped into a still lagoon?Hard by the sooming sea.
All day the ocean beat on bar?And bank of gleaming sand;?Yet that lone pool was always mild,?It never moved when waves were wild,?But slumbered, like a quiet child,?Upon the lap of land.
And when I rested on the brink,?Amongst the fallen flowers,?I lay in calm; no leaves were stirred?By breath of wind, or wing of bird;?It was so still, you might have heard?The footfalls of the hours.
Faint slumbrous scents of roses filled?The air which covered me:?My words were low -- "she loved them so,?In Eden vales such odours blow:?How strange it is that roses grow?So near the shores of Sea!"
A sweeter fragrance never came?Across the Fields of Yore!?And when I said -- "we here would dwell," --?A low voice on the silence fell --?"Ah! if you loved the roses well,?You loved Aileen the more."
"Ay, that I did, and now would turn,?And fall and worship her!?But Oh, you dwell so far -- so high!?One cannot reach, though he may try,?The Morning land, and Jasper sky --?The balmy hills of Myrrh.
"Why vex me with delicious hints?Of fairest face, and rarest blooms;?You Spirit of a darling Dream?Which links itself with every theme?And thought of mine by surf or stream,?In glens -- or caverned glooms?"
She said, "thy wishes led me down,?From amaranthine bowers:?And since my face was haunting thee?With roses (dear which used to be),?They all have hither followed me,?The scents and shapes of flowers."
"Then stay, mine own evangel, stay!?Or, going, take me too;?But let me sojourn by your side,?If here we dwell or there abide,?It matters not!" I madly cried --?"I only care for you."
Oh, glittering Form that would not stay! --?Oh, sudden, sighing breeze!?A fainting rainbow dropped below?Far gleaming peaks and walls of snow?And there, a weary way, I go,?Towards the Sunrise seas.
Kooroora
The gums in the gully stand gloomy and stark,?A torrent beneath them is leaping,?And the wind goes about like a ghost in the dark?Where a chief of Wahibbi lies sleeping!?He dreams of a battle -- of foes of the past,?But he hears not the whooping abroad on the blast,?Nor the fall of the feet that are travelling fast.?Oh, why dost thou slumber, Kooroora?
They come o'er the hills in their terrible ire,?And speed by the woodlands and water;?They look down the hills at the flickering fire,?All eager and thirsty for slaughter.?Lo! the stormy moon glares like a torch from the vale,?And a voice in the belah grows wild in its wail,?As the cries of the Wanneroos swell with the gale --?Oh! rouse thee and meet them, Kooroora!
He starts from his sleep and he clutches his spear,?And the echoes roll backward in wonder,?For a shouting strikes into the hollow woods near,?Like the sound of a gathering thunder.?He clambers the ridge, with his face to the light,?The foes of Wahibbi come full in his sight --?The waters of Mooki will redden to-night.?Go! and glory awaits thee, Kooroora!
Lo! yeelamans splinter and boomerangs clash,?And a spear through the darkness is driven --?It whizzes along like a wandering flash?From the heart of a hurricane riven.?They turn to the mountains, that gloomy-browed band;?The rain droppeth down with a moan to the land,?And the face of a chieftain lies buried in sand --?Oh, the light that was quenched with Kooroora!
To-morrow the Wanneroo dogs will rejoice,?And feast in this desolate valley;?But where are his brothers -- the friends of his choice,?And why art thou absent, Ewalli??Now silence draws back to the forest again,?And the wind, like a wayfarer, sleeps on the plain,?But the cheeks of a warrior bleach in the rain.?Oh! where are thy mourners, Kooroora?
Fainting by the Way
Swarthy wastelands, wide and woodless, glittering miles and miles away, Where the south wind seldom wanders and the winters will not stay; Lurid wastelands, pent in silence, thick with hot and thirsty sighs, Where the scanty thorn-leaves twinkle with their haggard, hopeless eyes; Furnaced wastelands,