Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

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

By Henry Laurie

38 . Nora

CALM and fair

Flows the stream of Nora’s life,

Moving with a lazy air

Far from strife.

Goddesses

Must have looked from just such eyes,

Full of still felicities,—

No surprise,

No endeavour

(For endeavour mars perfection),

And, one almost fancies, never

Strong affection.

Far too cold

Seems that face for dream of mine,

Though, if set in sculptured mould,

How divine!

As she stands

Looking from the window forth,

Gazing o’er the sunny lands

To the north,

Light and shade

Cross and quiver to and fro,

By the she-oak’s tresses made,

Waving slow

In the breeze;

But no varying light you trace,

Save from flittings such as these,

On her face.

Calmly moving

On her daily household ways,

Little can you see for loving,

Much for praise.

One alone

Sets her quiet life aglow,

And, whene’er she hears his tone,

Then, I know

That her form

Has a richer, fuller grace,

And the colour rushes warm

To her face.

From her eyes

All the hidden life peeps out,

From her lips strange melodies

Float about

All astir,

Thoughts and hopes, unguessed before,

Gleam, till Love can ask of her

Nothing more.

’Tis as though,

Walking on a charmèd shore,

Blind to all the gleam and glow

Which it bore,

On our sight

Flashed the flush of roses blowing,

Dewdrops sparkling in the light,

Rivers flowing;

For at last

One had come, whose star-tipt wand

Woke to gladness, as he passed

Through the land.

Shall we then

Grudge the favoured one his due?

Fate gives wands to other men,

Charmèd too!

Unaware

While we wander to and fro,

Flowers may blossom here and there

As we go.

Lives are bound

Each to each by secret spell,

And a fairy-land lies round

Us as well.