Hark ! the bells on distant cattle Waft across the range,Through the golden-tufted wattle, Music low and strange;Like the marriage peal of fairies Comes the tinkling sound,Or like chimes of sweet St. Mary"s On far English ground.
How my courser champs the snaffle, And, with nostril spread,Snorts, and scarcely seems to ruffle Fern leaves with his tread;Cool and pleasant on his haunches Blows the evening breeze,Through the overhanging branches Of the wattle trees.
Onward, to the Southern Ocean, Glides the breath of Spring, Onward, with a dreamy motion,I, too, glide and sing.
Forward, forward still we wander.
Tinted hills that lie
In the red horizon yonder, Is the goal so nigh?
Whisper, spring-wind, softly singing, Whisper in my ear;Respite and nepenthe bringing, Can the goal be near?
Laden with the dew of vespers, From the fragrant sky,In my ear the wind that whispers Seems to make reply :
" Question not, but live and labour Till yon goal be won,Helping every feeble neighbour, Seeking help from none;Life is mostly froth and bubble; Two things stand like stone-Kindness in another"s trouble, Courage in your own. "Courage, comrades! This is certain, All is for the best-There are lights behind the curtain- Gentles, let us rest.
As the smoke-rack veers to seaward
From "the ancient clay, " With its moral drifting leeward,Ends the wanderer"s lay.
Adam Lindsay Gordon
Author.-Adam Llndsay Gordon (1833-1870), born in the Azores, came to Australia in 1853 and joined the mounted police. He was elected to the South Australian Parliament in 1865. After failing in business as a keeper of a livery stable, he turned his attention to steeplechase riding.He lived poor at Brighton, Victoria, and died by his own hand. Various publishers have issued his collected poems, which are mostly about horsemen in the open.
General.-Which are the descriptive stanzas? Which are the thoughtfulstanzas? Which one sums up Gordon"s creed? Is it sufficient? Nepenthe, anything that lulls pain or sorrow, is a Greek name for an Egyptian drug, perhaps opium. With regard to the lines " Life is mostly froth and bubble; two things stand like stone, " can you get a vision of flood-waters surging round two projecting rocks?
