Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Oceanica: Vol. XXXI. 1876–79.
D’Entrecasteaux Channel
By John Dunmore Lang (1799–1878)N
And Tasman’s Head lies on your starboard bow
Huge rocks and stunted trees meet you where’er
You look around; ’t is a bold coast enow.
With foul wind and crank ship ’t were hard to wear:
A reef of rocks lies westward long and low.
At ebb tide you may see the Actæon lie
A sheer hulk o’er the breakers, high and dry.
Proud waves keep holiday along its shore,
And as the vessel glides before the breeze,
Broad bays and isles appear, and steep cliffs hoar
With groves on either hand of ancient trees
Planted by Nature in the days of yore:
Van Dieman’s on the left and Bruné’s isle
Forming the starboard shore for many a mile.
Is heard, nor forest warbler’s tuneful song.
It seems as if this beauteous world began
To be but yesterday, and the earth still young
Van Dieman’s Land (tasmania).
And unpossessed. For though the tall black swan
Sits on her nest and stately sails along,
And the green wild doves their fleet pinions ply,
And the gray eagle tempts the azure sky,
Reigns undisturbed along that voiceless shore,
And every tree seems standing as it stood
Six thousand years ago. The loud wave’s roar
Were music in these wilds. The wise and good
That wont of old, as hermits, to adore
The God of Nature in the desert drear,
Might sure have found a fit sojourning here.