A radiance in the midnight sky
No white moon gave, nor yellow star;
We thought its red glow mounted high
Where fire and forest fought afar.
Half fearing that the township blazed,
Perchance, beyond the boundary hill;
Then finding what it was, -- we gazed
And wondered, till we shivered chill.
And pondered on the sister glow,
Of our Aurora, -- sending lines
Of lustre forth, to tint the snow
That lodges on Norwegian pines.
And South and North alternate swept,
In vision, past us, to and fro;
While stealthy winds of midnight crept
About us, whispering fast and low.
The North, whose star burns steadily, --
Night set in Heaven long ago;
The South, new risen on the sea, --
A tremulous horizon-glow.
We thought, "Shall there be gallant guests
Within our polar hermitage,
As on the shore where Franklin rests, --
And others, -- named in glory's page?"
And "Shall the light we look on blaze
Above such battles as have been, --
In other countries -- other days, --
The Giants and the Gods between?"
Till one declared, "We live to-night
In what shall be the poet's world;
Those lands 'neath our Aurora's light
Are as the rocks the Titans hurled.
"From southern waters ice-enthralled
Year after year the rays that glance
Shall see the Desert shrink appalled,
Before the City's swift advance.
"Shall see the precipice a stair, --
The river as a road. And then
There shall be voices which declare
'This work was wrought by manly men.'"
And so our South all stately swept,
In vision, past us, -- to and fro;
While stealthy winds of midnight crept
About us, -- whispering fast and low.
First published in Australian Town and Country Journal, 3 May 1873;
and later in
Where the Pelican Builds and Other Poems by Mary Hannay Foott, 1885.
Author reference sites: Austlit, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Old Qld Poetry
See also.
No white moon gave, nor yellow star;
We thought its red glow mounted high
Where fire and forest fought afar.
Half fearing that the township blazed,
Perchance, beyond the boundary hill;
Then finding what it was, -- we gazed
And wondered, till we shivered chill.
And pondered on the sister glow,
Of our Aurora, -- sending lines
Of lustre forth, to tint the snow
That lodges on Norwegian pines.
And South and North alternate swept,
In vision, past us, to and fro;
While stealthy winds of midnight crept
About us, whispering fast and low.
The North, whose star burns steadily, --
Night set in Heaven long ago;
The South, new risen on the sea, --
A tremulous horizon-glow.
We thought, "Shall there be gallant guests
Within our polar hermitage,
As on the shore where Franklin rests, --
And others, -- named in glory's page?"
And "Shall the light we look on blaze
Above such battles as have been, --
In other countries -- other days, --
The Giants and the Gods between?"
Till one declared, "We live to-night
In what shall be the poet's world;
Those lands 'neath our Aurora's light
Are as the rocks the Titans hurled.
"From southern waters ice-enthralled
Year after year the rays that glance
Shall see the Desert shrink appalled,
Before the City's swift advance.
"Shall see the precipice a stair, --
The river as a road. And then
There shall be voices which declare
'This work was wrought by manly men.'"
And so our South all stately swept,
In vision, past us, -- to and fro;
While stealthy winds of midnight crept
About us, -- whispering fast and low.
First published in Australian Town and Country Journal, 3 May 1873;
and later in
Where the Pelican Builds and Other Poems by Mary Hannay Foott, 1885.
Author reference sites: Austlit, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Old Qld Poetry
See also.
