Page:The Secret Key and Other Verses - Evans.djvu/27

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AN AUSTRALIAN SYMPHONY
5
The gray gums by the lonely creek,
   The star-crowned height,
The wind-swept plain, the dim blue peak,
   The cold white light,
The solitude spread near and far
Around the camp-fire's tiny star,
The horse-bell's melody remote,
The curlew's melancholy note
   Across the night.

These have their message; yet from these
   Our songs have thrown
O'er all our Austral hills and leas
   One sombre tone.
Whence doth the mournful keynote start?
From the pure depths of Nature's heart?
Or from the heart of him who sings
And deems his hand upon the strings
   Is Nature's own?

Could tints be deeper, skies less dim,
   More soft and fair,
Dappled with milk-white clouds that swim
   In faintest air?