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Morning Glory by Kathleen Dalziel

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When Mary hushed her Son to sleep
   Beneath the trees at even fall --
The dusky cedars used to keep
   Green watch and ward above it all.

And all that hour was filled with grace,
   And every flower looked up with joy
To see the light on Mary's face
   While crooning to the drowsy Boy.

But ere the stars are blossom-white
   In fields of heaven, one sad, closed flower
('Tis said) crept by her garments bright
   And caught their color from that hour --

The holy blue of Mary's gown;
   And, sad no more, to morning skies
Flung forth triumphant, over-blown
   With all the blues of Paradise,

The morning glory, still to keep
   Her blossoming mantle mystical,
Though thrones have crumbled in a heap,
   And into dust those idols all....
Since Mary hushed her Son to sleep
   Beneath the trees at even-fall.

First published in The Australian Woman's Mirror, 10 December 1929

Author reference site: Austlit

See also.

Mar by C.J. Dennis

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"'Er pore dear Par." she sez, "'e kept a store";
An' then she weeps an' stares 'ard at the floor.
   "'Twas thro' 'is death," she sez, "we wus rejuiced
To this," she sez ... An' then she weeps some more.
  
"'Er par," she sez, "me poor late 'usband, kept
An 'ay an' corn store. 'E'd no faults ixcept
   'Im fallin' 'eavy orf a load o' charf
W'ich -- killed 'im -- on the -- " 'Struth! But 'ow she wept.
 
She blows 'er nose an' sniffs. "'E would 'a' made"
She sez, "a lot of money in the trade.
   But, 'im took orf so sudden-like, we found
'E 'adn't kept 'is life insurince paid.
 
"To think," she sez, "a child o' mine should be
Rejuiced to workin' in a factory!
   If 'er pore Par 'e 'adn't died," she sobs...
I sez, "It wus a bit o' luck for me."
 
Then I gits 'as red as 'ell, "That is -- I mean,"
I sez, "I mighter never met Doreen
   If 'e 'ad not" -- an' 'ere I lose me block --
"I 'ope," I sez, "'e snuffed it quick and clean."
 
An' that wus 'ow I made me first deboo.
I'd dodged it cunnin' fer a month or two.
   Doreen she sez, "You'll have to meet my Mar,
Some day," she sez.  An' so I seen it thro'.
 
I'd pictered some stern female in a cap
Wot puts the fear o' Gawd into a chap
   And 'ere she wus, aweepin' in 'er tea
An' drippin' moistcher like a leaky tap.
 
Two dilly sorter dawgs made outer delf
Stares 'ard at me frum orf the mantelshelf.
   I seemed to symperthise wiv them there pups;
I felt so stiff an' brittle-like meself.
 
Clobber?  Me trosso, 'ead to foot, wus noo --
Got up regardless, fer this interview.
   Stiff shirt, a Yankee soot split up the back,
A tie wiv yeller spots an' stripes o' blue.
 
Me cuffs kep' playing wiv me nervis fears
Me patent leathers nearly brought the tears
   An' there I sits wiv, "Yes, mum.  Thanks.  Indeed?"
Me stand-up collar sorin' orf me ears.
 
"Life's 'ard," she sez, an' then she brightens up.
"Still, we 'ave alwus 'ad our bite and sup.
   Doreen's been sich a help; she 'as indeed.
Some more tea, Willy?  'Ave another cup."
 
Willy! O 'ell! 'Ere wus a flaming pill!
A moniker that alwus makes me ill.
   "If it's the same to you, mum," I replies
"I answer quicker to the name of Bill."
 
Up goes 'er 'ands an' eyes.  "That vulgar name!"
No, Willy, but it isn't all the same,
   My fucher son must be respectable."
"Orright," I sez, "I s'pose it's in the game."
 
"Me fucher son," she sez, "right on frum this
Must not take anythink I say amiss.
   I know me jooty by me son-in-lor;
So, Willy, come an' give ya Mar a kiss".
 
I done it.  Tho' I dunno 'ow I did.
"Dear boy," she sez, "to do as you are bid.
   Be kind to 'er," she sobs, "my little girl!"
An' then I kiss Doreen.  She sez "Ah Kid!".
 
Doreen! Ar 'ow 'er pretty eyes did shine.
No sight on earth or 'Eaving's 'arf so fine,
   An' as they looked at me she seemed to say
"I'm proud of 'im, I am, an' 'e is mine."
 
There was a sorter glimmer in 'er eye,
An 'appy, nervis look, 'arf proud, 'arf shy;
   I seen 'er in me mind be'ind the cups
In our own little kipsie, bye an' bye.
 
An' then when Mar-in-lor an' me began
To tork of 'ouse'old things an' scheme an' plan,
   A sudden thort fair jolts me where I live:
"These is my wimmin folk! An' I'm a man!"
 
It's wot they calls responsibility.
All of a 'eap that feelin' come to me;
   An' somew'ere in me 'ead I seemed to feel
A sneakin' sort o' wish that I was free.
 
'Ere's me 'oo never took no 'eed o' life,
Investin' in a mar-in-lor an' wife:
   Someone to battle fer besides meself,
Somethink to love an' shield frum care and strife.
 
It makes yeh solim when yeh come to think
Wot love and marridge means.  Ar, strike me pink!
   It ain't all sighs and kisses.  It's yer life.
An' 'ere's me temblin' on the bloomin' brink.
 
"'Er pore dead Par," she sez, an' gulps a sob.
An' then I tells 'er 'ow I got a job,
   As storeman down at Jones' printin' joint,
A decent sorter cop for fifty bob.
 
The things get 'ome-like; an' we torks till late,
An' tries to tease Doreen to fix the date,
   An' she gits sudden soft and tender-like,
An' cries a bit, when we parts at the gate.
 
An' as I'm moochin' 'omeward frum the car
A sudden notion stops me wiv a jar --
   Wot if Doreen, I thinks, should grow to be,
A fat ole weepin' willer like 'er Mar!
 
O, 'struth!  It won't bear thinkin' of!  It's crook!
An' I'm a mean, unfeelin' dawg to look
   At things like that.  Doreen's Doreen to me,
The sweetest peach on w'ich a man wus shook.
 
'Er "pore dear Par"...I s'pose 'e 'ad 'is day,
An' kissed and smooged an' loved 'er in 'is way.
   An' wed an' took 'is chances like a man --
But, Gawd, this splicin' racket ain't all play.
 
Love is a gamble, an' there ain't no certs.
Some day, I s'pose, I'll git wise to the skirts.
   An' learn to take the bitter wiv the sweet...
But strike me purple!  "Willy!"  That's wot 'urts.

First published in The Bulletin, 6 August 1914;
and later in
The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke by C.J. Dennis, 1915;
Selected Works of C.J. Dennis, 1988;
The Illustrated Treasury of Australian Humour edited by Michael Sharkey, 1988; and
Favourite Poems of C.J. Dennis, 1989.

Lost by M. Burkinshaw (Mabel Forrest)

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      Out into the mist,
Alone in the shadows that darken the vale,
With no heed the heart voice too broken to wail,
      The lips that I kissed!

      How cold and how still
The round baby limbs and the cheeks and the brow!
Is this waxen image all left to me now
      To fondle at will?

      Two years thou wert mine,
To scold and to clasp and to rock in my arms ---
Those sweet curling fingers, those rose-tinted palms,
      Those dimples of thine.

      No one was so near
As the mother who loved thee, yet dreaded to love,
Lest God should grow jealous, and bend from above,
      And find thee as dear.

      It was all in vain ---
The fates that I cheated, the prayers that I prayed.
Thou hast strayed in the darkness, mine own little maid,
      And I find not again.

First published in The Queenslander, 17 July 1897

Author reference sites: Austlit, Australian Dictionary of Biography

See also.

In the Street by John Shaw Neilson

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The night, the rain, who could forget? --
The grey streets glimmering in the wet:
Wreckers and ruined wreckage met:
   There was no dearth
Of all the unlovely things that yet
   Must plague the earth.

Gloom, and the street's unhallowed joys:
The sly-eyed girls, the jeering boys:
Faint-carolling amid the noise
   A woman worn --
A broken life: a heart, a voice,
   Trembling and torn.

She did not sing of hillside steep,
Of reapers stooping low to reap;
No love-lorn shepherd with his sheep
   Made moan or call:
A mother kissed her child asleep,
   And that was all.

Slowly into our hearts there crept
I know not what: it flamed! it leapt!
Was it God's love that in us slept?
   I saw the mark
Of tears upon her, as she stept
   Into the dark.

First published in The Bookfellow, 4 April 1907, and again in the same magazine August 1914;
and later in
Poems by John Shaw Neilson, 1964;
Australian Letters, 4 September 1964;
The Vital Decade: Ten Years of Australian Art and Letters edited by Geoffrey Dutton, 1968;
Green Days and Cherries: the early verses of Shaw Neilson edited by Hugh Anderson and Leslie James Blake, 1981;
The Collins Book of Australian Poetry compiled by Rodney Hall, 1981;
John Shaw Neilson: Poetry, Autobiography and Correspondence edited by Cliff Hanna, 1991; and
Selected Poems edited by Robert Gray, 1993.

Author reference sites: Austlit, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Australian Poetry Library

See also.

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