Grows the sea-bloom, one that blushes like a shrinking, fair, blind child,
And amongst the oozing forelands many a glad green rockvine runs,
Getting ease on earthy ledges sheltered from December suns."
But among the many spirited poems written in Australia since its settlement not one can equal the "Sick Stock-rider," by Adam Lindsay Gordon, who came to South Australia in his early manhood, and attempted sheep-farming, with the result of "owning nothing but a love for horsemanship and a head full of Browning and Shelley." This is a quotation from an introduction to his book by Marcus Clarke, himself a novelist and poet. One can see in the mind's eye the scenes described in the following verses, so full of real life and genuine poetry:
"'Twas merry in the glowing morn, among the gleaming grass,
To wander as we've wandered many a mile,
And blow the cool tobacco cloud and watch the white wreaths pass,
Sitting loosely in the saddle all the while;
'Twas merry 'mid the backwoods, when we spied the station roofs,
To wheel the wild scrub cattle at the yard,