Trust and Treachery, Wisdom, Folly,
Madness, Mirth, and Melancholy,
Love and Hatred, Thrift and Pillage,
All are housed in one small village.
And if such be Life's mixed being,
Where may Peace from ruin fleeing,
Find a shelter and inherit
All the calm of her own merit?
In a bark of gentle motion
Sailing on the summer ocean?
There worst war the Tempest wages,
And the Whirlpool's hunger rages!
In some lonely new-world bower,
Hidden like a forest flower?
There too-there to irk the stranger,
Stalks the wild-eyed spirit Danger!
Vainly would she build by roving,
Or in hoping or in loving,
Or in solitary spaces:
Having in all times and places,
Or in none, a home of beauty
In the fearless Heart of Duty --
Dwelling there with Faith, and seeing
God's right hand all things decreeing.
First published in The Empire, 19 April 1852;
and later in
The Bushrangers, a Play in Five Acts, and Other Poems by Charles Harpur, 1853; and
The Poetical Works of Charles Harpur edited by Elizabeth Perkins, 1984.
Author reference sites: Austlit, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Australian Poetry Library
See also.
Madness, Mirth, and Melancholy,
Love and Hatred, Thrift and Pillage,
All are housed in one small village.
And if such be Life's mixed being,
Where may Peace from ruin fleeing,
Find a shelter and inherit
All the calm of her own merit?
In a bark of gentle motion
Sailing on the summer ocean?
There worst war the Tempest wages,
And the Whirlpool's hunger rages!
In some lonely new-world bower,
Hidden like a forest flower?
There too-there to irk the stranger,
Stalks the wild-eyed spirit Danger!
Vainly would she build by roving,
Or in hoping or in loving,
Or in solitary spaces:
Having in all times and places,
Or in none, a home of beauty
In the fearless Heart of Duty --
Dwelling there with Faith, and seeing
God's right hand all things decreeing.
First published in The Empire, 19 April 1852;
and later in
The Bushrangers, a Play in Five Acts, and Other Poems by Charles Harpur, 1853; and
The Poetical Works of Charles Harpur edited by Elizabeth Perkins, 1984.
Author reference sites: Austlit, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Australian Poetry Library
See also.
