Page:Australian and Other Poems.djvu/36



is the season, yet so bright the rays The sun diffuses from his northern home, That, like a well-proved friend who distant strays His spell beneficent is slow to roam.

The woods are bright, although their sheen grows less, Like bride who lays her wedding-garb aside; The waters sparkle, though in mellowness. Like beauty's smile when youth has veiled its pride.

The hoar-frost marks the grassy lawn at morn, But fades when the first matin beam appears, Till earth grows bright, as those erewhile forlorn, Joy when their hope a sunlit aspect wears.

We miss the leafless wood, the frost-bound earth, The waters sealed within their icy bed; We miss the snow that folds the autumn's birth. Like shrouds that lie around the early dead.