"In mental agony he lifted up
His voice to Him who hears the sufferer's prayer...."
That's just what you feel like doing. The spirit of humility expressed in the poem is in sharp contrast to the ferocity expressed by a brother bard, who, on leaving Australia's shores, shook his clenched fist at the continent and recited some lines ending—
"The rich man's Heaven, the poor man's Hell,
Land of ——, Fare thee well!"
There has been a lot of controversy in the Commonwealth as to the missing word, so I leave it blank, and pass on to the ode that won the New South Wales Government prize of fifty guineas, in open competition, as being the best "Occasional" for the birth of the Commonwealth. Listen to the opening:
"Awake! Arise! The wings of dawn
Are beating at the Gates of Day!"
And that was addressed to the Australian for the purpose of arousing him! What chance had it of doing so; the Australian merely turned over and said, "Why the blanky blank should I get up?" It's just as well that all should know here and now that the only way to waken Australia is to heave a brick at it—same as I'm doing.
One of the best known poets of Australia, I understand, is the Rev. Mr. Cuzens, who published a volume entitled "Footprints of Jesus." I make bold to reprint a verse of "The Temptation":
"A dreary wilderness, a desert wild
Of Nature's varied loveliness despoiled,
Stretched out, I see, in barrenness and woe
A fitting emblem of the world below;
Deep gloom and dread
The land o'erspread."
I cannot say of what denomination the rev. poet was; but I understand it was written before the days of the Salvation Army commenced to enrich the world's library of hymns.
There was also a poet named Kendall, of whom Australia is very proud. The Press critics call him an "impulsive songster," and I do remember taking a little thing of his away in memory after reading a collection of his verse. The little thing went: