• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

The Institute of Australian Culture

Heritage, history, and heroes; literature, legends, and larrikins

  • Home
  • Articles
  • Biographies
  • Books
  • Ephemera
  • Poetry & songs
  • Slang
  • Timeline
  • Topics
    • Anzac Day
    • Australia Day
    • Australian Aborigines
    • Australianism
    • Australian literature
    • The Eureka Rebellion
    • Explorers
    • Significant events and commemorative dates

My Lady and I [poem by Agnes Neale]

2 May 2016 · Leave a Comment

[Editor: This poem by Agnes Neale was published in Shadows and Sunbeams (1890).]

My Lady and I.

My lady sat in her garden bower,
Queen of the queenliest rose was she,
Fairest lily of lilies fair,
Loveliest flower of earth to me.
Not the daisies that kissed the sod,
Not sweetest violets bathed in dew,
Not even the stately hyacinth,
Or the sweet forget-me-not’s steadfast blue
Are half as lovely as she I love;
Are half as bright as her starry eyes,
Where the light of truth in their warm depth glows
Like the golden sun in the noontide skies.

My lady is slender, and fair, and tall,
And we love each other, my darling and I;
And we never think in her garden bower
Of the winter time when the roses die.
We live in the summer, my lady and I,
Where the birds are singing the whole day through;
And we care not even if storms should come —
Storms cannot hurt us while we are true.
What if the roses should fade away?
Or if the glad bird notes should cease to ring?
They will sing and blossom again we know
In the golden light of another spring.

My lady lies in a solemn sleep —
Whiter than loveliest lily she;
Stainless and pure as the snowdrop pale
Is the fairest flower of the earth to me.
The storms have come, but they could not hurt,
We live in the summer, my lady and I —
She on the shores of the crystal sea,
I in the thought of the days gone by.
What if our roses are faded and dead?
What if our birds should have ceased to sing?
They will sing and blossom again, we know,
In the golden light of eternal spring.



Source:
Agnes Neale, Shadows and Sunbeams, Adelaide: Burden & Bonython, 1890, pages 58-59

Editor’s notes:
bower = a shaded, leafy resting place or shelter, usually located within a garden or park and often made of latticework upon which plants (especially vines) are grown, or made out of intertwined tree boughs or vines (also known as an “arbor”) (“bower” may also refer to a country cottage or retreat, or to a woman’s bedroom or apartments in a medieval castle or mansion)

Filed Under: poetry Tagged With: Agnes Neale (Caroline Agnes Leane) (author) (1849-1892), poem, Shadows and Sunbeams (Agnes Neale 1890), SourceHathiTrust, year1890

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Australian flag, 100hThe Institute of Australian Culture
Heritage, history, and heroes. Literature, legends, and larrikins. Stories, songs, and sages.

Featured books

The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses, by Banjo Paterson A Book for Kids, by C. J. Dennis  The Bulletin Reciter: A Collection of Verses for Recitation from The Bulletin The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, by C. J. Dennis The Complete Inner History of the Kelly Gang and Their Pursuers, by J. J. Kenneally The Foundations of Culture in Australia, by P. R. Stephensen The Australian Crisis, by C. H. Kirmess Such Is Life, by Joseph Furphy
More books (full text)

Featured lists

Timeline of Australian history and culture
A list of significant Australiana
Significant events and commemorative dates
Australian slang
Books (full text)
Australian literature
Rock music and pop music (videos)
Folk music and bush music (videos)
Early music (videos)
Recommended poetry
Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
Poetry and songs, 1901-1954
Australian explorers
Topics
Links

Featured posts

Advance Australia Fair: How the song became the Australian national anthem
Brian Cadd [music videos and biography]
Ned Kelly: Australian bushranger
Under the Southern Cross I Stand [the Australian cricket team’s victory song]

Some Australian authors

E. J. Brady
John Le Gay Brereton
C. J. Dennis
Mary Hannay Foott
Joseph Furphy
Mary Gilmore
Charles Harpur
Grant Hervey
Lucy Everett Homfray
Rex Ingamells
Henry Kendall
“Kookaburra”
Henry Lawson
Jack Moses
“Dryblower” Murphy
John Shaw Neilson
John O’Brien (Patrick Joseph Hartigan)
“Banjo” Paterson
Marie E. J. Pitt
A. G. Stephens
P. R. Stephensen
Agnes L. Storrie (Agnes L. Kettlewell)

Recent Posts

  • Vale! Percy Mahoney [by H. A. Burton, 14 December 1950]
  • Early-day sportsman’s death [obituary of Percy Mahoney, 7 December 1950]
  • Visits to the IAC site from various countries
  • Poems by J. Shaw Neilson [book review, 22 December 1923]
  • “Australia in Palestine” [book review, 6 November 1919]

Top Posts & Pages

  • The Man from Snowy River [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • Rommel’s comments on Australian soldiers [1941-1942]
  • The drover’s wife [by Henry Lawson]
  • Timeline of Australian history and culture
  • Under the Southern Cross I Stand [the Australian cricket team’s victory song]

Categories

Archives

Posts of note

The Bastard from the Bush [poem, circa 1900]
A Book for Kids [by C. J. Dennis, 1921]
Click Go the Shears [traditional Australian song, 1890s]
Core of My Heart [“My Country”, poem by Dorothea Mackellar, 24 October 1908]
Freedom on the Wallaby [poem by Henry Lawson, 16 May 1891]
The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]
Nationality [poem by Mary Gilmore, 12 May 1942]
The Newcastle song [music video, sung by Bob Hudson]
No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest [poem by Mary Gilmore, 29 June 1940]
Our pipes [short story by Henry Lawson]
Rommel’s comments on Australian soldiers [1941-1942]
Shooting the moon [short story by Henry Lawson]

Search this site



For Australia


Copyright © 2022 · Log in