Editha! out by the sandy bar,
Out by the shining line of beach,
Somewhere away in the south you are,
Mermaid and seashore, each to each.
Out on the rocks where the seashell lies
Editha dreams in the noonday rest,
Where waves dance blue as a woman's eyes,
And foam lies white as a woman's breast.
To his ears her voice, as a syren song,
Perhaps rings to-day in the sea-girt south;
Perhaps he already has waited long
For an answering smile from her rose-leaf month.
But the songs I heard in the past are here,
As tenderly true or as gaily bright;
And I find the voice of my dreams as dear,
Though I hear it but in my heart to-night.
First published in The Queenslander, 24 July 1897
