 | Australian Lyrics &c |  |
A WEDDING LETTER.
Dear Mary, I can picture you in the familiar aisle
With a lace veil of spotless hue shrouding your face the while
With new emotion just awake and eyes with dewdrops dim,
Trembling you promise to forsake all and to follow him.
With a lace veil of spotless hue shrouding your face the while
With new emotion just awake and eyes with dewdrops dim,
Trembling you promise to forsake all and to follow him.
And I can picture him, who reared us since our mother died,
With his hands' sun-burned back besmeared with tear-wet, by your side;
It is but six short years agone that we were all at home,
And lo! now, there is left but one, who hath not learned to roam.
With his hands' sun-burned back besmeared with tear-wet, by your side;
It is but six short years agone that we were all at home,
And lo! now, there is left but one, who hath not learned to roam.
20
We were like nestlings, who remain until their wings have grown,
Clinging together—but are fain, when feathered, to be flown;
One took a mate and with him flew, and one the world would see,
And one was sent out, and now you follow the other three.
Clinging together—but are fain, when feathered, to be flown;
One took a mate and with him flew, and one the world would see,
And one was sent out, and now you follow the other three.
Sweet be your hours of wedded life, such hours as had our queen,
Or Eleanor the loyal wife, who foiled the Saracen;
Sweet summer be your wedding day, and summer be your years,
And cloud and tempest be away from both their atmospheres.
Or Eleanor the loyal wife, who foiled the Saracen;
Sweet summer be your wedding day, and summer be your years,
And cloud and tempest be away from both their atmospheres.
Fair be your branches, straight of stem, and laden with ripe fruit,
And may new branches spring from them to keep the ancient root
From lying hidden in the earth, its very place unknown,
As others of forgotten worth in millions have done.
And may new branches spring from them to keep the ancient root
From lying hidden in the earth, its very place unknown,
As others of forgotten worth in millions have done.
And now, good night, for night has come over our Southern climes,
Although the noonday sun at home still shines above the limes:
To-night it is your wedding morn, and on your wedding night,
Here, half-way, 'twixt Good Hope and Horn all will be morning bright.
Although the noonday sun at home still shines above the limes:
To-night it is your wedding morn, and on your wedding night,
Here, half-way, 'twixt Good Hope and Horn all will be morning bright.
| Australian Lyrics &c | |