And I, O little darlings,
I have many miles to go,
And where I too may stop and sleep,
And when, I do not know.
But I charge you to remember
The love, the trust I had,
That you’d be noble, fearless, free,
And make your country glad!
That you should toil together,
Face whatever yet shall be,
My citizens for faithful labour,
My soldiers for victory!
I charge you to remember;
I bless you with my hand,
And I know the hour is coming
When you shall understand:
When you shall understand too,
Why, as I said farewell,
Although my lips were smiling,
The shining tears down fell.
EPODE.
“On the Ranges, Queensland.”
Beyond the night, down o’er the labouring East,
I see light’s harbinger of dawn released:
Upon the false gleam of the ante-dawn,
Lo, the fair heaven of day-pursuing morn!
Beyond the lampless sleep and perishing death
That hold my heart, I feel my new life’s breath,
I see the face my spirit-shape shall have
When this frail clay and dust have fled the grave.
Beyond the night, the death of doubt, defeat,
Rise dawn and morn, and life with light doth meet,
For the great Cause, too,—sure as the sun yon ray
Shoots up to strike the threatening clouds and say;
“I come, and with me comes the victorious Day!”
When I was young, the muse I worshipped took me,
Fearless, a lonely heart, to look on men.
“’Tis yours,” said she, “to paint this show of them
Even as they are!” Then smiling she forsook me.