| Walter Murdoch (1874–1970). The Oxford Book of Australasian Verse. 1918. |
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| 44. Perdita |
| | | By James Hebblethwaite |
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| THE SEA-COAST of Bohemia | |
| Is pleasant to the view | |
| When singing larks spring from the grass | |
| To fade into the blue, | |
| And all the hawthorn hedges break | 5 |
| In wreaths of purest snow, | |
| And yellow daffodils are out, | |
| And roses half in blow. | |
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| The sea-coast of Bohemia | |
| Is sad as sad can be, | 10 |
| The prince has ta’en our flower of maids | |
| Across the violet sea; | |
| Our Perdita has gone with him, | |
| No more we dance the round | |
| Upon the green in joyous play, | 15 |
| Or wake the tabor’s sound. | |
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| The sea-coast of Bohemia | |
| Has many wonders seen, | |
| The shepherd lass wed with a king, | |
| The shepherd with a queen; | 20 |
| But such a wonder as my love | |
| Was never seen before, | |
| It is my joy and sorrow now | |
| To love her evermore. | |
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| The sea-coast of Bohemia | 25 |
| Is haunted by a light | |
| Of memory fair of lady’s eyes, | |
| And fame of gallant knight; | |
| The princes seek its charmèd strand, | |
| But ah, it was our knell | 30 |
| When o’er the sea our Perdita | |
| Went with young Florizel. | |
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| The sea-coast of Bohemia | |
| Is not my resting-place, | |
| For with her waned from out the day | 35 |
| A beauty and a grace: | |
| O had I kissed her on the lips | |
| I would no longer weep, | |
| But live by that until the day | |
| I fall to shade and sleep. | 40 |
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