Sir Henry Parkes Poems

(November 6th, 1886)

With speechless lips and solemn tread
   They brought the Lawyer-Statesman home:
...

Where the mocking lyre-bird calls
To its mate among the falls
Of the mountain streams that play,
...

THE BRAVE old land of deed and song,
Of gentle hearts and spirits strong,
Of queenly maids and heroes grand,
Of equal laws,—our Fatherland!
...

I count the mercifullest part of all
God's mercies, in this coil of eighty years,
Is that no sense of being disappears
Or fails; I see the signal, hear the call,
...

WEARY of the ceaseless war
Beating down the baffled soul,—
Thoughts that like a scimitar
Smite us fainting at the goal.
...

When you arrive at Sydney, sailing up
The harbour, a small central isle you'll see;
With two or three low huts, but not a tree,
...

Up go the beautiful and world-watch'd stars,
Lifting the glory of America,
'Mong the red flags which gleam through masts
and spars
...

Soft as the morning's pearly light,
Where yet may rise the thunder-cloud,
Her gentle face was ever bright
...