[Editor: This poem by Philip Durham Lorimer was published in Songs and Verses by Philip Durham Lorimer: An Australian Bush Poet, 1901.]
Sisters
Somebody’s darling weeping,
Out in the cold and the rain,
Bitterly sobbing and sighing
To be in her home again ;
At home for shelter and love —
The night has none of that here ;
The wind is mocking her sighs,
And there is nobody near.
Somebody’s love is singing —
Bright is the light in the room ;
She is gay in her pleasures,
In her eyes you see not the gloom —
The gloom that tarries without
Dark o’er her sister there ;
What matter in song or in verse,
The weight of a sister’s care ?
Somebody lies in the street ;
The dawning is breaking, when
A mother and babe are found
Dead by the toilers of men.
Nobody cares to know it,
That story is now too old ;
The hearts that stay to listen
Sink back in their bosoms cold.
Somebody sits in her pew,
Golden the hues of her fan ;
Love is the theme of the text,
And she’s a darling of man.
There in the house, of her God
Her lips are extolling His praise ;
What if her sister be dead —
How will that darken her days ?
Wallendbeen.
Source:
E. A. Petherick (editor). Songs and Verses by Philip Durham Lorimer: An Australian Bush Poet, William Clowes and Sons, London, 1901, pages 124-125
The Institute of Australian Culture
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