Masefield's Tree Poem by Francis Duggan

In the famed poet C J Dennis 'Singing Gardens' at Toolangi on a visit to there in nineteen ninety three
I saw a tree of historical interest a plaque card read this is John Masefield's Tree
It was planted by England's Poet Laureate when he visited Dennis and the sapling into a big tree did grow
A memory of when a great poet met a great poet though that was more than seventy years ago.

When England's Poet Laureate met Australia's uncrowned Poet Laureate I suppose they shared a beer and talked of rhyme
Though both of them were then bordering their sixties and one might say decades beyond their prime,
They were true poets and literary giants of their era and both were so skilled at the wordsmith trade
And people like them rare and getting rarer and 'tis true that poets are born and not made.

Masefield lived on to beyond his eight decade though Dennis did not live on to be old
Of the 'Sentimental Bloke' his poetic work of genius more than a million copies have been sold
And Masefield penned his immortal 'Salt Water Ballads' and long poems and plays in rhyme that seemed to never end,
I'd like to have been a fly on the wall the evening that C J Dennis met his English friend.

The poets long gone though their words in books still living and though we may never see their likes again
My visit to the Singing Gardens at Toolangi fresh in my memory ever will remain
And there the tree that John Masefield had planted was soughing in the freshening evening breeze
And may they rest in peace those men of genius and we ought to thank them for the memories.