The Witch-Maid, and Other Verses/The Explorer

by Dorothea Mackellar

THE EXPLORER

Had I been Adam in Eden-glade
    I should have climbed the wall
Or ever the Woman found the fruit,
    Crimson and ripe to fall.

For though the garden be Paradise,
    Gardens are little worth
To one who thirsts for the wilderness
    Lonely in all the earth.

So out of the garden greenery
    Heavy with jasmine scent
And past the slumbering gentle beasts
    I would go forth content.

I'd think of naught save the wall, but gain
    Over the other side
A fair mixed world of evil and good,
    Chancy and wild and wide.

Sorrow and hunger and pain and fear,
    Peace that is won through strife,
The changing luck of the changing year
    Giving its zest to life.

Had I been Adam in Eden-close
    Never was wall so high
'Could keep me out of the lean brown earth,
    Though it might reach the sky!

Had I been Adam in Paradise
I should ha' climbed the wall,
I want not only the sweet of life
But all—all—all!