Walter Murdoch (1874–1970). The Oxford Book of Australasian Verse. 1918.

138. A New Theme

I FAIN would leave the tender songs

I sang to you of old,

Thinking the oft-sung beauty wrongs

The magic never told.

And touch no more the thoughts, the moods,

That win the easy praise;

But venture in the untrodden woods

To carve the future ways.

Though far or strange or cold appear

The shadowy things I tell,

Within the heart the hidden seer

Knows and remembers well.

I think that in the coming time

The hearts and hopes of men

The mountain tops of life shall climb,

The gods return again.

I strive to blow the magic horn;

It feebly murmureth;

Arise on some enchanted morn,

Poet, with God’s own breath!

And sound the horn I cannot blow,

And by the secret name

Each exile of the heart will know

Kindle the magic flame.