Page:Australian and Other Poems.djvu/50



the sun dwells when flowers are veiling their bloom, They say there's a land with all beauty endowed, Where mortals through pathways of pleasure e'er roam, Where life is all sunshine, undimmed by a cloud. But I heed not their fables; they're idle and vain; Each clime has its seasons of tempest and calm, And so Kalian is true, come gladness, come pain, The home I love best is the shade of the palm.

Though my robes be uncostly, my trinkets mere toys, Though my playmates be artless, my wooers untaught, Though the forest's the hall of our light festive joys, And each art that we know be with simpleness fraught;