Part 6 (1/2)
The harp we love hath a low sweet voice!
Its strings are in the bosom deep, And Love will press those hidden chords When all the baser pa.s.sions sleep.
Waiting and Wis.h.i.+ng
I loiter by this surging sea, Here, by this surging, sooming sea, Here, by this wailing, wild-faced sea, Dreaming through the dreamy night; Yearning for a strange delight!
Will it ever, ever, ever fly to me, By this surging sea, By this surging, sooming sea, By this wailing, wild-faced sea?
I know some gentle spirit lives, Some loving, lonely spirit lives, Some melancholy spirit lives, Walking o'er the earth for me, Searching round the world for me!
Will she ever, ever, ever hither come?
Where the waters roam, Where the sobbing waters roam!
Where the raving waters roam!
All worn and wasted by the storms, All gapped and fractured by the storms, All split and splintered by the storms, Overhead the caverns groan, Gloomy, ghastly caverns groan!-- Will she ever, ever, ever fill this heart?
Peace, O longing heart!
Peace, O longing, beating heart!
Peace, O beating, weary heart!
The Wild Kangaroo
The rain-clouds have gone to the deep-- The East like a furnace doth glow; And the day-spring is flooding the steep, And sheening the landscape below.
Oh, ye who are gifted with souls That delight in the music of birds, Come forth where the scattered mist rolls, And listen to eloquent words!
Oh, ye who are fond of the sport, And would travel yon wilderness through, Gather--each to his place--for a life-stirring chase, In the wake of the wild Kangaroo!
Gather--each to his place-- For a life-stirring chase In the wake of the wild Kangaroo!
Beyond the wide rents of the fog, The trees are illumined with gold; And the bark of the shepherd's brave dog Shoots away from the sheltering fold.
Down the depths of yon rock-border'd glade, A torrent goes foaming along; And the blind-owls retire into shade, And the bell-bird beginneth its song.
By the side of that yawning abyss, Where the vapours are hurrying to, We will merrily pa.s.s, looking down to the gra.s.s For the tracks of the wild Kangaroo!
We will merrily pa.s.s, Looking down to the gra.s.s For the tracks of the wild Kangaroo.
Ho, brothers, away to the woods; Euroka hath clambered the hill; But the morning there seldom intrudes, Where the night-shadows slumber on still.
We will roam o'er these forest-lands wild, And thread the dark ma.s.ses of vines, Where the winds, like the voice of a child, Are singing aloft in the pines.
We must keep down the glee of our hounds; We must _steal_ through the glittering dew; And the breezes shall sleep as we cautiously creep To the haunts of the wild Kangaroo.
And the breezes shall sleep, As we cautiously creep To the haunts of the wild Kangaroo.
When we pa.s.s through a stillness like death The swamp fowl and timorous quail, Like the leaves in a hurricane's breath, Will start from their nests in the vale; And the forester,* snuffing the air, Will bound from his covert so dark, While we follow along in the rear, As arrows speed on to their mark!