Seek you sorely, for a space,
Respite from the world's dull fretting?
Come then to a secret place --
Man's entanglements forgetting --
Deep within the forest dreaming.
Deep within its shadows cool,
Where the mountain waters streaming
Broaden to the placid beaming
Of a quiet pool.
Making here a great green tent,
Ti-tree bough and wattle bending --
As strong lovers' arms are bent
Shielding beauty -- droop, defending
This green sanctuary sleeping
In its soft green twilit day;
And a scrap of bright sky peeping
Thro' the tall trees, sentry keeping,
Seems a world away.
Rage the tempest as it may
O'er the tree-tops, writhing, broiling;
Burn as may the burning day,
Frailer loveliness despoiling;
Summer's scorn and Winter's bluster
Seeks in vain this hallowed spot
Lending its translucent lustre
To the nodding ferns that cluster
Many a mossy grot.
Steeply slope the banks above,
All the outer turmoil muting;
Softly, bush birds' sings of love
Match an organ's mellow fluting.
Here is peace past all conceiving
In this forest chance, here
Spreads a grace that transmutes grieving
To hushed wonder, to believing
God is very near.
First published in The Herald, 22 August 1933
Author reference sites: C.J. Dennis, Austlit, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Australian Poetry Library
See also.
