Away -- away She plunges
With her white sails o'er her spread,
Like the summer clouds that gather
On some hill's piny head:
Still away She plunges, rampant,
Like a Lion roused to wrath,
And the proud wave lies humbled
In the track of her path.
Ye ho! my gallant Sailors,
Wear her head from off the Land!
As his steed obeys the Arab,
How she gives to the hand!
Like a Soul the world forsaking,
Now she leaves the coast behind--
And the Main's her wide dwelling,
And her spouse is the Wind.
Then pledge we a full measure
To the Friends we left to day,
Whose kind thoughts shall hover o'er us
On our watery way:
Where diurnally remind us
Shall the same bright-brimming rite,
Of the eyes that yearned blessings
When we last knew their light.
First published in The Maitland Mercry & Hunter River General Advertiser, 12 August 1846;
and later in
The Bushrangers, a Play in Five Acts and Other Poems by Charles Harpur, 1853; and
The Poetical Works of Charles Harpur edited by Elizabeth Perkins, 1984.
Author reference sites: Austlit, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Australian Poetry Library
See also.
With her white sails o'er her spread,
Like the summer clouds that gather
On some hill's piny head:
Still away She plunges, rampant,
Like a Lion roused to wrath,
And the proud wave lies humbled
In the track of her path.
Ye ho! my gallant Sailors,
Wear her head from off the Land!
As his steed obeys the Arab,
How she gives to the hand!
Like a Soul the world forsaking,
Now she leaves the coast behind--
And the Main's her wide dwelling,
And her spouse is the Wind.
Then pledge we a full measure
To the Friends we left to day,
Whose kind thoughts shall hover o'er us
On our watery way:
Where diurnally remind us
Shall the same bright-brimming rite,
Of the eyes that yearned blessings
When we last knew their light.
First published in The Maitland Mercry & Hunter River General Advertiser, 12 August 1846;
and later in
The Bushrangers, a Play in Five Acts and Other Poems by Charles Harpur, 1853; and
The Poetical Works of Charles Harpur edited by Elizabeth Perkins, 1984.
Author reference sites: Austlit, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Australian Poetry Library
See also.
