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Home  »  The Oxford Book of Australasian Verse  »  131 . O Heart of Spring!

Walter Murdoch (1874–1970). The Oxford Book of Australasian Verse. 1918.

By Shaw Neilson

131 . O Heart of Spring!

O HEART of Spring!

Spirit of light and love and joyous day,

So soon to faint beneath the fiery Summer:

Still smiles the Earth, eager for thee alway:

Welcome art thou, soever short thy stay,

Thou bold, thou blithe newcomer!

Whither, O whither this thy journeying,

O heart of Spring?

O heart of Spring!

After the stormy days of Winter’s reign,

When the keen winds their last lament are sighing,

The Sun shall raise thee up to life again:

In thy dim death thou shalt not suffer pain:

Surely thou dost not fear this quiet dying?

Whither, O whither this thy journeying,

O heart of Spring?

O heart of Spring!

Youth’s emblem, ancient and unchanging light,

Uncomprehended, unconsumed, still burning:

Oh that we could, as thou, rise from the night

To find a world of blossoms lilac-white,

And long-winged swallows unafraid returning…

Whither, O whither this thy journeying,

O heart of Spring?