[Editor: This poem by John Shaw Neilson was published in Heart of Spring (1919), Ballad and Lyrical Poems (1923), and Collected Poems of John Shaw Neilson (1934).]
Old Violin
Speak not to me, old violin!
Mock not this heart of mine!
Thou mummy with the glistening skin
Speak not to me, old violin!
For the dead men have shadows thin,
And all their sobs are thine —
Speak not to me, old violin!
Mock not this heart of mine!
Source:
Shaw Neilson, Heart of Spring, Sydney: The Bookfellow, 1919, page 39
Also published in:
John Shaw Neilson, Ballad and Lyrical Poems, Sydney: The Bookfellow in Australia, 1923, page 107
John Shaw Neilson (edited by R. H. Croll), Collected Poems of John Shaw Neilson, Melbourne: Lothian Book Publishing Company, 1934, page 35
Editor’s notes:
thine = (archaic) yours; your (“thine”, meaning “your”, is usually placed before a word which begins with a vowel, e.g. “To thine own self be true”)
thou = (archaic) you
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