I have a garden where delphiniums grow
In rows of slender blue, and at their feet
Like pools of liquid colour pansies show
Their wondering faces, velvety and sweet.
Not once have I stood where my zinnias glow,
Nor sought the shadows when the sun was high,
But deep within some wild thing bids me go
Where gum-trees wave against a distant sky.
Where gum-trees wave against the sky, and where
In delicate profusion spreading ferns
Throw dappled shade on moss and maidenhair,
With artistry a man's hand never learns.
A man's hand places one thing here, not there,
And Nature laughs and says not there, but here.
My garden shows an artificial care,
Has calculated each thing far, or near.
But when life's farthest mile-stone I have passed,
And in some quiet, curtained room I lie,
Then shall I ask to see, of all things last
The distant gum-trees wave against the sky.
First published in The Sydney Morning Herald, 19 October 1929
Author: nothing is known about the author of this poem
Author reference site: Austlit
In rows of slender blue, and at their feet
Like pools of liquid colour pansies show
Their wondering faces, velvety and sweet.
Not once have I stood where my zinnias glow,
Nor sought the shadows when the sun was high,
But deep within some wild thing bids me go
Where gum-trees wave against a distant sky.
Where gum-trees wave against the sky, and where
In delicate profusion spreading ferns
Throw dappled shade on moss and maidenhair,
With artistry a man's hand never learns.
A man's hand places one thing here, not there,
And Nature laughs and says not there, but here.
My garden shows an artificial care,
Has calculated each thing far, or near.
But when life's farthest mile-stone I have passed,
And in some quiet, curtained room I lie,
Then shall I ask to see, of all things last
The distant gum-trees wave against the sky.
First published in The Sydney Morning Herald, 19 October 1929
Author: nothing is known about the author of this poem
Author reference site: Austlit
