The quick compunction cannot serve;
She saw the flash,
Ere he had bent with busy hand
And drooping lash.
...
Ardent in love and cold in charity,
Loud in the market, timid in debate:
Scornful of foe unbuckled in the dust
...
To be unloved brings sweet relief:
The strong adoring eyes
Play the eternal thief
...
Parasite lichen
Lies grey on the years;
Lily buries herself
When winter appears.
...
My annals have it so:
A thing my mother saw,
Nigh eighty years ago,
With happiness and awe.
...
At an old water-hole,
Bones lay in the hide
And teeth gibbered up
...
Nina’s cross: her alphabet
Flung upon the floor.
Hoity toity! in a pet,
Wanting something more.
...
If I let go my strength
To hold your twisted strand,
It could but sear at length,
And hurt my coward hand.
...
I have seen a gum-tree,
Scarred by the blaze
Of the pioneer axe,
...
Shall they not praise the cogs,
Praise the pistons and wheels,
And still be poets
To whom appeals
...