From the Forests

<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN> <h2> From the Forests </h2> <p> &mdash;<br/> * Introductory verses for "The Sydney University Review", 1881.<br/> &mdash;<br/></p> <p> Where in a green, moist, myrtle dell<br/> The torrent voice rings strong<br/> And clear, above a star-bright well,<br/> I write this woodland song.<br/> <br/> The melodies of many leaves<br/> Float in a fragrant zone;<br/> And here are flowers by deep-mossed eaves<br/> That day has never known.<br/> <br/> I'll weave a garland out of these,<br/> The darlings of the birds,<br/> And send it over singing seas<br/> With certain sunny words&mdash;<br/> <br/> With certain words alive with light<br/> Of welcome for a thing<br/> Of promise, born beneath the white,<br/> Soft afternoon of Spring.<br/> <br/> The faithful few have waited long<br/> A life like this to see;<br/> And they will understand the song<br/> That flows to-day from me.<br/> <br/> May every page within this book<br/> Be as a radiant hour;<br/> Or like a bank of mountain brook,<br/> All flower and leaf and flower.<br/> <br/> May all the strength and all the grace<br/> Of Letters make it beam<br/> As beams a lawn whose lovely face<br/> Is as a glorious dream.<br/> <br/> And may that strange divinity<br/> That men call Genius write<br/> Some deathless thing in days to be,<br/> To fill those days with light.<br/> <br/> Here where the free, frank waters run,<br/> I pray this book may grow<br/> A sacred candour like the sun<br/> Above the morning snow.<br/> <br/> May noble thoughts in faultless words&mdash;<br/> In clean white diction&mdash;make<br/> It shine as shines the home of birds<br/> And moss and leaf and lake.<br/> <br/> This fair fresh life with joy I hail,<br/> And this belief express,<br/> Its days will be a brilliant tale<br/> Of effort and success.<br/> <br/> Here ends my song; I have a dream<br/> Of beauty like the grace<br/> Which lies upon the land of stream<br/> In yonder mountain place.<br/></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />