[Editor: This poem by Louis Esson was published in Bells and Bees: Verses (1910).]
The Splitter
Back in the bush
Unbroken, the splitter
Hews stroke on stark stroke
Thro’ blackbutts and blue gums.
Man, the Destroyer!
Man, Master-Builder!
The axe flashes.
Savage blows shatter
The dawn world enchanted.
The axe sings.
Cradles rock,
New generations
Build cities whose spires
Seek stars of the future.
Each stroke of the axe
Unleashes fresh forces,
Drives multitudes marching
Onward, aye, whither?
Prophetic, the splitter
Grows large in the sunrise,
Like Adam, the First Man.
Source:
Louis Esson, Bells and Bees: Verses, Melbourne: Thomas C. Lothian, 1910, [page 9]
Editor’s notes:
Adam = the first man created by God in the Garden of Eden (according to the Bible, in the Book of Genesis)
aye = yes (may also be used to express agreement, assent, or the acceptance of an order)
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