[Editor: This poem by “Dryblower” Murphy was published in Dryblower’s Verses (1926).]
Mill Point.
Mill Point, Mill Point, Mill Point, in the morning
(Dearest, how I’m dreaming, wand’ring lonely London through),
When the golden glory from the sweet day’s adorning
Shone upon your silver sand and wavelets blue.
Mill Point, Mill Point, day shall cease to be
When my heart remembers not all you meant to me!
Mill Point, Mill Point, Mill Point in the noontide;
Warm were the wavelets as they lapped your sandy shores.
Round the old deserted barge the kissing and the croon tide
Stole like a lover to the dear one he adores.
Mill Point, Mill Point, here in London town,
See I once again the barges drowsing up and down.
Mill Point, Mill Point, Mill Point in the yester years,
Years before the Boche’s bullet masked my eager eyes,
The sweetly sentimental years, the joyous and the jester years,
When the river rippled on beneath the smiling skies.
Mill Point, Mill Point, never shall I see
Ways that we have wandered to our happy trysting tree.
Mill Point, Mill Point, Mill Point in the starlight
Still I feel your kisses warm upon my longing lips,
When we steered love’s argosy towards the flick’ring far-light,
And in my arms you trembled to your tender finger tips.
Mill Point, Mill Point, shrine-like is your shore,
There our pathways parted, reuniting never more.
Source:
Edwin Greenslade Murphy, Dryblower’s Verses, Perth, W.A.: E. G. Murphy, 1926, page 69
Previously published (with some differences) in:
The Sunday Times (Perth, WA), 3 October 1920, p. 4
Editor’s notes:
argosy = a large ship, especially a richly-laden merchant ship; a fleet of large ships; a rich supply; derived from the Italian word “ragusea”, referring to a ship from Ragusa (now Dubrovnik, in Croatia)
Boche = Germans; especially used to refer to German soldiers in World War One and World War Two (“Boche” could be used in a singular sense to refer to an individual German, as well as in a collective sense to refer to the German military or to Germans in general) (similar to the usage of “Fritz” or “Huns”)
Leave a Reply