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Songs From The Mountains

by Henry Kendall
CONTENTS

PAGE
DEDICATION-TO A MOUNTAIN

...
3

MARY RIVERS
...

8
KINGSBOROUGH

...
13

BEYOND KERGUELEN
...

20
BLACK LIZZIE

...
25

HY-BRASIL
...

33
JIM THE SPLITTER

...
38

MOONI
...

44
PYTHEAS

...
51

BILL THE BULLOCK DRIVER
...

58
COORANBEAN

...
64

WHEN UNDERNEATH THE BROWN DEAD GRASS
...

70
THE VOICE IN THE WILD OAK

...
73

BILLY VICKERS
...

80
PERSIA

...
87

LILITH
...

92
BOB

...
96

PETER THE PICCANINNY
...

104
NARRARA CREEK

...
111

IN MEMORY OF JOHN FAIRFAX
...

117
ARALUEN

...
122

THE SYDNEY INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION
...

127
CHRISTMAS CREEK

...
145

ORARA
...

153
THE CURSE OF MOTHER FLOOD

...
158

ON A SPANISH CATHEDRAL
...

164
ROVER

...
173

THE MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION
...

183
BY THE CLIFFS OF THE SEA

...
189

GALATEA
...

195
BLACK KATE

...
200

A HYDE PARK LARRIKIN
...

205
NAMES UPON A STONE

...
213

LEICHHARDT
...

218
AFTER MANY YEARS

...
225

Page: 1
SONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS

Page: 3
DEDICATION

TO A MOUNTAIN
TO thee, O father of the stately peaks,

Above me in the loftier light - to thee,
Imperial brother of those awful hills

Whose feet are set in splendid spheres of flame,
Whose heads are where the gods are, and whose sides

Of strength are belted round with all the zones
Of all the world, I dedicate these songs.

And if, within the compass of this book,
There lives and glows one verse in which there beats

The pulse of wind and torrent - if one line
Is here that like a running water sounds,

Page: 4
And seems an echo from the lands of leaf,

Be sure that line is thine. Here, in this home,
Away from men and books and all the schools,

I take thee for my Teacher. In thy voice
Of deathless majesty, I, kneeling, hear

God's grand authentic Gospel! Year by year,
The great sublime cantata of thy storm

Strikes through my spirit - fills it with a life
Of startling beauty! Thou my Bible art,

With holy leaves of rock, and flower, and tree,
And moss, and shining runnel. From each page

That helps to make thy awful volume, I
Have learned a noble lesson. In the psalm

Of thy grave winds, and in the liturgy
Of singing waters, lo! my soul has heard

The higher worship; and from thee, indeed,
The broad foundations of a finer hope

Were gathered in; and thou hast lifted up
The blind horizon for a larger faith!

Moreover, walking in exalted woods
Page: 5

Of naked glory, in the green and gold
Of forest sunshine, I have paused like one

With all the life transfigured; and a flood
Of light ineffable has made me feel

As felt the grand old prophets caught away
By flames of inspiration; but the words

Sufficient for the story of my Dream
Are far too splendid for poor human lips.

But thou, to whom I turn with reverent eyes -
O stately Father, whose majestic face

Shines far above the zone of wind and cloud,
Where high dominion of the morning is -

Thou hast the Song complete of which my songs
Are pallid adumbrations! Certain sounds

Of strong authentic sorrow in this book
May have the sob of uplandtorrents - these,

And only these, may touch the great World's heart;
For, lo! they are the issues of that grief

Which makes a man more human, and his life
More like that frank, exalted life of thine.

Page: 6
But in these pages there are other tones

In which thy large, superior voice is not -
Through which no beauty that resembles thine

Has ever shone. These are the broken words
Of blind occasions, when the World has come

Between me and my Dream. No song is here
Of mightycompass; for my singing robes

I've worn in stolen moments. All my days
Have been the days of a laborious life,

And ever on my struggling soul has burned
The fierce heat of this hurriedsphere. But thou,

To whose fair majesty I dedicate
My book of rhymes - thou hast the perfect rest

Which makes the heaven of the highest gods!
To thee the noises of this violent time

Are far, faint whispers; and, from age to age,
Within the world and yet apart from it,

Thou standest! Round thy lordly capes the sea
Rolls on with a superb indifference

For ever; in thy deep, green, gracious glens
Page: 7

The silver fountains sing for ever. Far
Above dim ghosts of waters in the caves,

The royal robe of morning on thy head
Abides for ever. Evermore the wind

Is thy augustcompanion; and thy peers
Are cloud, and thunder, and the face sublime

Of blue mid-heaven! On thy awful brow
Is Deity; and in that voice of thine

There is the great imperial utterance
Of God for ever; and thy feet are set

Where evermore, through all the days and years,
There rolls the grand hymn of the deathless wave.



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