Poems and Songs

The Muse of Australia

Henry Kendall

WHERE the pines with the eagles are nestled in rifts,
    And the torrent leaps down to the surges,
I have followed her, clambering over the clifts,
    By the chasms and moon-haunted verges.
I know she is fair as the angels are fair,
For have I not caught a faint glimpse of her there;
A glimpse of her face and her glittering hair,
    And a hand with the Harp of Australia?

I never can reach you, to hear the sweet voice
    So full with the music of fountains!
Oh! when will you meet with that soul of your choice,
    Who will lead you down here from the mountains?
A lyre-bird lit on a shimmering space;
It dazzled mine eyes and I turned from the place,
And wept in the dark for a glorious face,
    And a hand with the Harp of Australia!

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