I.
Voices I love to hear,
Filling my soul with cheer,
Sounding are heard by mountain and fell;
Gaily they speak to me,
Gently as distant sea,
Echoing laughter like ocean-tuned shell,
Telling such tales as angels-may tell!
II.
Morn awakes, bright and clear,
Laughing at thinking drear,
Sweeping the hills with chariot of gold;
Smiling on toil of men,
Wielding a poet pen;
Trailing green ivy o'er monuments old,
Lighting the hours till their moments are told.
III.
Poet, your lyric thought;
Now to the moment wrought,
Sandalled and hooded with glory may rise;
Joy to the city throng,
Loved as a cheering song --
Lifting sad hearts to the hope in the skies,
Breathing a music toil slaves realise!
IV.
Voices through bush and glen
Take me away again
Over life's plain to the dawn of its day;
Far o'er the road of tears,
Back o'er the gulf of years,
Into the time when my fancy had sway --
Gilding the future with tinsel array!
V.
Only to know once more
Friends who have gone before;
Some by the kiss of the pleasure-lit wave;
Some on the track of life,
Some on the field of strife,
Soundly they sleep in the folds of the grave;
And never a one had taint of the knave!
VI.
Lonely I wander on,
Singing my song of morn,
Drinking the nectar of sunshine around,
Yet for awhile I gleam
Thoughts from life's morning dream,
Till a new joy in the present is found,
Thrilling with song of healthier sound!
VII.
Over the mountain crest,
Over the golden west,
Soundeth the joy of a brotherhood new;
Riseth the Austral cross,
Glorious o'er its course,
Flaming its ground of pure, azureous blue,
Welding our States to a Commonwealth true!
First published in The Australian Town and Country Journal, 22 June 1901
Author: James Lister Cutherbertson (1851-1910) was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and arrived in Australia in 1874 to teach at Geelong Grammar. He was to remain a teacher or master at the college most of his adult life. He found himself in Mount Gambier at the start of 1910 suffering from illness and insomnia. He died there after taking an overdose of barbiturates. He never married.
Author reference sites: Austlit, Australian Dictionary of Biography
Voices I love to hear,
Filling my soul with cheer,
Sounding are heard by mountain and fell;
Gaily they speak to me,
Gently as distant sea,
Echoing laughter like ocean-tuned shell,
Telling such tales as angels-may tell!
II.
Morn awakes, bright and clear,
Laughing at thinking drear,
Sweeping the hills with chariot of gold;
Smiling on toil of men,
Wielding a poet pen;
Trailing green ivy o'er monuments old,
Lighting the hours till their moments are told.
III.
Poet, your lyric thought;
Now to the moment wrought,
Sandalled and hooded with glory may rise;
Joy to the city throng,
Loved as a cheering song --
Lifting sad hearts to the hope in the skies,
Breathing a music toil slaves realise!
IV.
Voices through bush and glen
Take me away again
Over life's plain to the dawn of its day;
Far o'er the road of tears,
Back o'er the gulf of years,
Into the time when my fancy had sway --
Gilding the future with tinsel array!
V.
Only to know once more
Friends who have gone before;
Some by the kiss of the pleasure-lit wave;
Some on the track of life,
Some on the field of strife,
Soundly they sleep in the folds of the grave;
And never a one had taint of the knave!
VI.
Lonely I wander on,
Singing my song of morn,
Drinking the nectar of sunshine around,
Yet for awhile I gleam
Thoughts from life's morning dream,
Till a new joy in the present is found,
Thrilling with song of healthier sound!
VII.
Over the mountain crest,
Over the golden west,
Soundeth the joy of a brotherhood new;
Riseth the Austral cross,
Glorious o'er its course,
Flaming its ground of pure, azureous blue,
Welding our States to a Commonwealth true!
First published in The Australian Town and Country Journal, 22 June 1901
Author: James Lister Cutherbertson (1851-1910) was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and arrived in Australia in 1874 to teach at Geelong Grammar. He was to remain a teacher or master at the college most of his adult life. He found himself in Mount Gambier at the start of 1910 suffering from illness and insomnia. He died there after taking an overdose of barbiturates. He never married.
Author reference sites: Austlit, Australian Dictionary of Biography
