Around me lie the scatter'd wrecks
Of my brave company,
Who journey'd forth into the midst
Of this vast plain, to die.--
Fierce Sun! thou can'st not light again
The fires in each closed eye,--
Nor loose the black parched tongue of death,
Even unto God to cry.
Dwellers beside your cherished hearths!
Kind friends who greeted me,
Even as a brother when I came,
The mourned one, o'er the sea; --
And helped me forth, (my bosom's thirst,)
This central waste to see --
I cry, tho' death may stop my words,
God's blessings upon ye.
Oh! take my fame, for good or ill,
Nor let my name be lost;
I sought a household word to be,
Nor do I grudge the cost: --
Some hearts, I deem may grieve for him,
Midst central sands now toss'd,
And blame the lingering steps that might
The dead man's path have crossed.
First published in The Empire, 9 December 1851
Author reference sites: Austlit, Australian Dictionary of Biography
See also.
Of my brave company,
Who journey'd forth into the midst
Of this vast plain, to die.--
Fierce Sun! thou can'st not light again
The fires in each closed eye,--
Nor loose the black parched tongue of death,
Even unto God to cry.
Dwellers beside your cherished hearths!
Kind friends who greeted me,
Even as a brother when I came,
The mourned one, o'er the sea; --
And helped me forth, (my bosom's thirst,)
This central waste to see --
I cry, tho' death may stop my words,
God's blessings upon ye.
Oh! take my fame, for good or ill,
Nor let my name be lost;
I sought a household word to be,
Nor do I grudge the cost: --
Some hearts, I deem may grieve for him,
Midst central sands now toss'd,
And blame the lingering steps that might
The dead man's path have crossed.
First published in The Empire, 9 December 1851
Author reference sites: Austlit, Australian Dictionary of Biography
See also.
