55. Song of the Drift Weed by Jessie Mackay. Murdoch, Walter, comp. 1918. The Oxford Book of Australasian Verse

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

55. Song of the Drift Weed

By Jessie Mackay


HERE’S to the home that was never, never ours!
Toast it full and fairly when the winter lowers.
Speak ye low, my merry men, sitting at your ease;
Harken to the homeless Drift in the roaring seas!

Here’s to the life we shall never live on earth!	5
Cut for us awry, awry ages ere the birth.
Set the teeth and meet it well, wind upon the shore;
Like a lion, in the face look the Nevermore!

Here’s to the love we were never let to win!
What of that? a many shells have a pearl within;	10
Some are mated with the gold in the light of day;
Some are buried fathoms deep, in the seas away.

Here’s to the selves we shall never, never be!
We’re the drift of the world and the tangle of the sea.
It’s far beyond the Pleiad, it’s out beyond the sun	15
Where the rootless shall be rooted when the wander-year is done!