Page:The witch-maid & other verses (1914).djvu/73

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.

THE COORONG SANDHILLS



THE COORONG SANDHILLS

(South Australia)

Over the Coorong sandhills only the wild duck fly,
Naught is there but the knot-grass rank, and the sea, and the sky;
Redder than cooling lava, slow heave the hills to the blue,
Splendid, dazzling, and stainless, of sky and of ocean too.

South to the frozen mountains faces the last red hill,
Only the sea between them; almost as lone and still
Shows the sand as the ice-peaks, but it has heat and light,
Set against the aurora that shatters the polar night.

If the sands have a language, healing it is and kind,
Clean and strong like the sea-roar or the glad shout of the wind;

69