A Reverie [poem by Louisa Lawson]

[Editor: This poem by Louisa Lawson was published in “The Lonely Crossing” and Other Poems (1905).]

A Reverie.

I am sitting by the river,
And I while an hour away
Watching circles start and widen
In their momentary play.

Here a stronger ’whelms a weaker
As its ring expanding flies,
There one ripples to the surface
As another fades and dies.

And I solemn grow while thinking —
As I sit and idly dream
That each life is like a circle
On time’s deep, impellant stream.

Do we not upon its bosom
Linger for a little day,
Making faint and fleeting impress,
Then for ever fade away.

While the strong unresting river
Towards Eternity doth glide,
All regardless of the circles
That have pulsed upon its tide.

Source:
Louisa Lawson, “The Lonely Crossing” and Other Poems, Sydney: Dawn Office, [1905], pp. 93-94

Editor’s notes:
doth = (archaic) does

’whelm = (vernacular) overwhelm