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

By Charles Harpur

6 . Words

WORDS are deeds. The words we hear

May revolutionize or rear

A mighty state. The words we read

May be a spiritual deed

Excelling any fleshly one,

As much as the celestial sun

Transcends a bonfire, made to throw

A light upon some raree-show.

A simple proverb tagged with rhyme

May colour half the course of time;

The pregnant saying of a sage

May influence every coming age;

A song in its effects may be

More glorious than Thermopylae,

And many a lay that schoolboys scan

A nobler feat than Inkerman.