 | Australian Lyrics &c |  |
TO THE FALLEN GUM TREE ON MOUNT BAW-BAW,
480 feet long.
Yes, you lie there in state unearthly solemn,
As if you'd been a heaven-supporting column,
Not a dead tree of leaf and foliage stript,
Gigantic Eucalypt.
As if you'd been a heaven-supporting column,
Not a dead tree of leaf and foliage stript,
Gigantic Eucalypt.
23
Your brothers, standing still, look half-defiant,
Half in mute sorrow for the fallen giant:
I doubt if anything ere fell so far
Except a falling star.
Half in mute sorrow for the fallen giant:
I doubt if anything ere fell so far
Except a falling star.
How tall would you have grown in course of Nature?
How old are your five hundred feet of stature?
Can you remember Noah and the flood
When you were but a bud?
How old are your five hundred feet of stature?
Can you remember Noah and the flood
When you were but a bud?
Standing beside your trunk, one almost fancies
That he beholds the Middle Age romances,
And that the stories travellers have told,
In books despised and old,
That he beholds the Middle Age romances,
And that the stories travellers have told,
In books despised and old,
May not have been without some slight foundation,
Though they, of course, lost nothing in narration:
Herodotus is less and less ignored
As Africa 's explored.
Though they, of course, lost nothing in narration:
Herodotus is less and less ignored
As Africa 's explored.
What have you witnessed in your long existence
On remote ranges in the Gippsland distance?
Have you seen savage empires rise and fall,
And stories tragical?
On remote ranges in the Gippsland distance?
Have you seen savage empires rise and fall,
And stories tragical?
Did some Black Dido, flying from her lovers,
Found a new kingdom, happy in thy covers,
Until a Maori Æneas came
And lit the cursed flame?
Found a new kingdom, happy in thy covers,
Until a Maori Æneas came
And lit the cursed flame?
Or a dark Robin Hood devote his leisure
To stealing skulls, and take a savage pleasure
In making what blacks have by way of priests,
Uneasy at their feasts?
To stealing skulls, and take a savage pleasure
In making what blacks have by way of priests,
Uneasy at their feasts?
Or saw you earlier and gentler races,
Of nobler instincts and with paler faces,
Die out before the circling boomerang
And the black serpent's fang?
Of nobler instincts and with paler faces,
Die out before the circling boomerang
And the black serpent's fang?
You look like a great chip of the creation,
A relic of the former Dispensation,
When men were forced to spend nine hundred years
Here in this vale of tears.
A relic of the former Dispensation,
When men were forced to spend nine hundred years
Here in this vale of tears.
24
Yet to us, creatures of a day, it's soothing
To know that, as trees go, your years are nothing:
There's little in Australia but rocks
Of old age orthodox.
To know that, as trees go, your years are nothing:
There's little in Australia but rocks
Of old age orthodox.
Lie there in fallen majesty, I love you.
May you lie there till the last trump shall move you,
Magnificent as Cheops in his crypt,
You dead King Eucalypt.
May you lie there till the last trump shall move you,
Magnificent as Cheops in his crypt,
You dead King Eucalypt.
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