Leave-taking

  • Year: 1924
Leave-taking
From Stable and Kirwood, A Book of Queensland Verse (1924)

 

Farewell, old hills! No more my feet shall tread you
To find the dingo’s den or emu’s nest;
Beneath the eucalypts that overspread you, 
No twilight-time shall find me there at rest. 
But I shall think of you in far-off islands, 
And love you still though seas between us swell. 
The wind that blows across the lonely highlands
Echoes, ‘Farewell!’
 
Good-bye old hills! Long since I learned to love you, 
In calm or when the lightnings wreathed you ‘round;
When summer’s happy song-birds flew above you,
Or when your rocks hurled back the thunder’s sound. 
And I shall think of you where I am going,
And dream of you beneath an alien sky.
The wind across the lonely highlands blowing 
Answers, ‘Goodbye!’
 
 

                                              Lydia O'Neil (1924)

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