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Home  »  The Oxford Book of Australasian Verse  »  86 . Song of the Trees

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

By Mary Colborne-Veel

86 . Song of the Trees

1

WE are the Trees.

Our dark and leafy glade

Bands the bright earth with softer mysteries.

Beneath us changed and tamed the seasons run:

In burning zones, we build against the sun

Long centuries of shade.

2

We are the Trees,

Who grow for man’s desire,

Heat in our faithful hearts, and fruits that please.

Dwelling beneath our tents, he lightly gains

The few sufficiencies his life attains—

Shelter, and food, and fire.

3

We are the Trees

That by great waters stand,

By rills that murmur to our murmuring bees.

And where, in tracts all desolate and waste,

The palm-foot stays, man follows on, to taste

Springs in the desert sand.

4

We are the Trees

Who travel where he goes

Over the vast, inhuman, wandering seas.

His tutors we, in that adventure brave—

He launched with us upon the untried wave,

And now its mastery knows.

5

We are the Trees

Who bear him company

In life and death. His happy sylvan ease

He wins through us; through us, his cities spread

That like a forest guard his unfenced head

’Gainst storm and bitter sky.

6

We are the Trees.

On us the dying rest

Their strange, sad eyes, in farewell messages.

And we, his comrades still, since earth began,

Wave mournful boughs above the grave of man,

And coffin his cold breast.