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

33. Childhood

HOW I could see through and through you!

So unconscious, tender, kind,

More than ever was known to you

Of the pure ways of your mind.

We who long to rest from strife

Labour sternly as a duty;

But a magic in your life

Charms, unknowing of its beauty.

We are pools whose depths are told;

You are like a mystic fountain,

Issuing ever pure and cold

From the hollows of the mountain.

We are men by anguish taught

To distinguish false from true;

Higher wisdom we have not;

But a joy within guides you.