“Such Is Life!” [poem by Philip Durham Lorimer]

[Editor: This poem by Philip Durham Lorimer was published in Songs and Verses by Philip Durham Lorimer: An Australian Bush Poet, 1901.]

“Such Is Life!”

Written at the age of fourteen.

“Such is life !” Yet, ah ! how easy
’Tis to cause a heart to sigh !
With those touching words to waken
Thoughts of immortality !

Where the mere remembrance of them
Torn from mind and soul, will be
In that deep unsounding chaos
Which is called Eternity,

Where the past will be forgotten,
And eternal light will rise ;
“Such is life !” will then be hidden
In oblivion’s dark “good-byes.”

Lovers to their maidens trembling,
Agéd to the young appeal.
With the broken vow is blending —
“Such is life !” — come woe or weal.

* * * * *

“Such is life !” We often hear it
Murmured in our careless ears ;
Yet the phrase, so oft repeated,
Brings to us no change in years.

Still, oh, still, the same words linger.
Broken accents, with a sigh.
And the drooping heart it listens
To the lone but human cry,

Breaking through the wailing sorrow,
Falling from the lips we love,
Leaving yet a wound still deeper
Than the pang it would remove.

The last three stanzas written at Gundagai, November 11, 1892.

Source:
E. A. Petherick (editor). Songs and Verses by Philip Durham Lorimer: An Australian Bush Poet, William Clowes and Sons, London, 1901, pages 61-62