The Sun is Up [poem by John Shaw Neilson]

[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).]

The Sun is Up

Speak not of Death: it is a merry morn;
A glittering bird has danced into a tree:
From his abundant heart bravely are borne
The loves of leafy choristers to me:
Music is of the sunlight, strong and free ..
The sun is up, and Death is far away:
The first hour is the sweetest of the day.

Blithely a bush boy wanders on a walk —
Shaking with joy, joyous in heart and limb:
For his delight the trees have learned to talk
And all the flowers have little laughs with him
Watching the far sky, wonderful and dim ..
The sun is up, and Death is far away:
The first hour is the sweetest of the day.

Source:
Shaw Neilson, Heart of Spring, Sydney: The Bookfellow, 1919, page 10

Also published in:
John Shaw Neilson, Ballad and Lyrical Poems, Sydney: Bookfellow in Australia, 1923, page 11
John Shaw Neilson (edited by R. H. Croll), Collected Poems of John Shaw Neilson, Melbourne: Lothian Publishing Company, 1934, page 10

Editor’s notes:
In Ballad and Lyrical Poems the poem is divided into four stanzas, using the same number of lines, but separated as 5 lines, 2 lines, 5 lines, 2 lines.

[Editor: Changed the first instance of “death is far” to “Death is far”, in line with the capitalisation of the word “Death” in the rest of the poem and in line with the capitalisation used in the same poem as published in Collected Poems of John Shaw Neilson (it should be noted that in Ballad and Lyrical Poems all three instances of the word “death” in this poem were not capitalised).]