The Winds Of The Bellarine Poem by Rory Hudson

The Winds Of The Bellarine



(The Bellarine [pronounced Bell-A-REEN) Peninsula in Victoria, Australia, is a flat and windy area which terminates at a narrow channel called the Spit where the Southern Ocean roars into Port Philip Bay. This is one of the most treacherous stretches of water in Australia, where many ships have been lost.)

Dark souls are blown wildly
in the winds of the Bellarine
through trees of night, consigned by death
to destinies unseen.
The lighthouse casts its lonely gaze
across the stormy Rip
‘tis claimed its lights, on wintry nights,
reveal a ghostly ship -
a ship whose pale and ghastly crew
cry out against the wind
in shuddering discords to the skies:
Forgive, for we have sinned!
Long years ago we dreamed a dream
of green and pleasant lands
and dusky maidens greeting us
with warm inviting hands.
We had no thought for homes we left
where we had been content -
we grasped at greater prizes yet
in the lands to which we went.
We had no thought for kith and kin
who wept through empty years
of absence of us ones they loved
beseeching with their tears.
We had no thought for those whose lands
we took along the way;
we lusted only for the wealth
in the lands beside the bay.
Now, many a ship has foundered here
in the waters of the Rip,
and we sail here for evermore
to warn of fate’s cruel grip.
We sink, to rise and sink again
each night, ‘neath icy waves,
to never even know the peace
of the dead within their graves.
O you who stare from towering cliffs
at this dread scene below,
think of the ship that steers your life
and the fate that you may know -

Forgive, for we have sinned!
they cry each night in vain
to the wild and unrelenting wind
and the pitiless driving rain.

I turned away and stopped my ears
against their wretched groans,
and yet a shaft of deathly cold
had lodged within my bones.
And though through life I may seek out
a shelter warm and clean,
I fear I may not find escape
from the winds of the Bellarine.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Gert Strydom 15 June 2009

You are painting a really vivid picture here.

0 0 Reply
READ THIS POEM IN OTHER LANGUAGES
Rory Hudson

Rory Hudson

Adelaide, Australia
Close
Error Success