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

86. In the Womb

STILL rests the heavy share on the dark soil:

Upon the black mould thick the dew-damp lies:

The horse waits patient: from his lowly toil

The ploughboy to the morning lifts his eyes.

The unbudding hedgerows dark against day’s fires

Glitter with gold-lit crystals: on the rim

Over the unregarding city’s spires

The lonely beauty shines alone for him.

And day by day the dawn or dark enfolds

And feeds with beauty eyes that cannot see

How in her womb the mighty mother moulds

The infant spirit for eternity.