• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

The Institute of Australian Culture

Heritage, history, and heroes; literature, legends, and larrikins

  • Home
  • Articles
  • Biographies
  • Books
  • Ephemera
  • Poetry & songs
    • Recommended poetry
    • Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
    • Poetry and songs, 1901-1954
    • Rock music and pop music [videos]
    • Early music [videos]
  • Slang
  • Timeline
    • Timeline of Australian history and culture
    • Calendar of Australian history and culture
    • Significant events and commemorative dates
  • Topics

A Trembling Star [poem by Ethel Turner, 25 March 1899]

20 March 2021 · Leave a Comment

[Editor: This poem by Ethel Turner was published in The Bookfellow (Sydney, NSW), 25 March 1899.]

A Trembling Star.

“There is my little trembling star,” she said.
I looked: once more
The tender sea had put the sun to bed
And heaven’s floor
Was grey.

And nowhere else in all that young night sky
Was any star
But one that hung above the sea, not high
Nor very far
Away.

“I watch it every night,” she said, and crept
Within my arm.
“Soft little star, I wish the angels kept
It safe from harm
Alway.

“I know it is afraid,” she said; her eyes
Held a sweet tear.
“They send it all alone into the skies,
No big stars near
To play.

“They push it out before the sweet kind moon
Lights up the sea.
They laugh because it fears the dark, ‘Soon, soon,
You ’ll braver be’
They say.

“One night I climbed far up that high white tree
Beside the beach,
And tried to stretch my hand across the sea,
And tried to reach
The grey.

“For something made me feel my heart would break
Unless that night
I in my hand my trembling star could take
And kiss its fright
Away.

“There only blew a strange wind chillily
And clouds were swept,
The angels would not let my own star see
That some one wept.
I pray

“To Christ who hears my little prayers each night
That He will seek
Through all His skies for that sweet frightened light;
And stoop his cheek
And say

“‘My angels must not send so frail a thing
To light the west.
Lift up the little trembling star to cling
About my breast
Alway.’”

Ethel Turner.



Source:
The Bookfellow (Sydney, NSW), 25 March 1899, pp. 25-26

Also published in:
The Leader (Melbourne, Vic.), 15 April 1899, p. 43
The Mercury (Hobart, Tas.), 26 April 1899, p. 2 of The Mercury Supplement
Kilmore Free Press (Kilmore, Vic.), 17 August 1899, p. 1
The Bulletin (Sydney, NSW), 21 July 1900, [p. ii] The Red Page (col. 1)
Adelaide Observer (Adelaide, SA), 12 September 1903, p. 8
The Freeman’s Journal (Sydney, NSW), 16 July 1908, p. 36
The Lone Hand (Sydney, NSW), 1 November 1915, p. 358
The Northern Champion (Taree, NSW), 25 July 1923, p. 1

Editor’s notes:
This poem was appended to the end of an article about Ethel Turner.

alway = (archaic) always

Filed Under: poetry Tagged With: Ethel Turner (1870-1968) (author), poem, publication The Bookfellow (Sydney), SourceNLA, year1899

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Australian flag, Kangaroo, Wattle, 100hThe Institute of Australian Culture
Heritage, history, and heroes. Literature, legends, and larrikins. Stories, songs, and sages.

Search this site

Featured books

The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses, by Banjo Paterson A Book for Kids, by C. J. Dennis  The Bulletin Reciter: A Collection of Verses for Recitation from The Bulletin The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, by C. J. Dennis The Complete Inner History of the Kelly Gang and Their Pursuers, by J. J. Kenneally The Foundations of Culture in Australia, by P. R. Stephensen The Australian Crisis, by C. H. Kirmess Such Is Life, by Joseph Furphy
More books (full text)

Featured lists

Timeline of Australian history and culture
A list of significant Australiana
Significant events and commemorative dates
Australian slang
Books (full text)
Australian literature
Rock music and pop music (videos)
Folk music and bush music (videos)
Early music (videos)
Recommended poetry
Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
Poetry and songs, 1901-1954
Australian explorers
Topics
Links

Featured posts

Advance Australia Fair: How the song became the Australian national anthem
Brian Cadd [music videos and biography]
Ned Kelly: Australian bushranger
Under the Southern Cross I Stand [the Australian cricket team’s victory song]

Some Australian authors

E. J. Brady
John Le Gay Brereton
C. J. Dennis
Mary Hannay Foott
Joseph Furphy
Mary Gilmore
Charles Harpur
Grant Hervey
Lucy Everett Homfray
Rex Ingamells
Henry Kendall
“Kookaburra”
Henry Lawson
Jack Moses
“Dryblower” Murphy
John Shaw Neilson
John O’Brien (Patrick Joseph Hartigan)
“Banjo” Paterson
Marie E. J. Pitt
A. G. Stephens
P. R. Stephensen
Agnes L. Storrie (Agnes L. Kettlewell)

Recent Posts

  • [The new stamps] [re the new Tasmanian postage stamps, 2 January 1900]
  • The Leading Lady [poem by “Stargazer”, 31 January 1917]
  • The Naval Contingent: With the Australians in China [17 October 1900]
  • Australia Day [26 January 1953]
  • Australia Day [24 January 1953]

Top Posts & Pages

  • Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
  • Australian slang
  • Dollars or rum: Early Australian currency [by J. H. M. Abbott, 1 April 1931]
  • The Man from Snowy River [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]

Archives

Categories

Posts of note

The Bastard from the Bush [poem, circa 1900]
A Book for Kids [by C. J. Dennis, 1921]
Click Go the Shears [traditional Australian song, 1890s]
Core of My Heart [“My Country”, poem by Dorothea Mackellar, 24 October 1908]
Freedom on the Wallaby [poem by Henry Lawson, 16 May 1891]
The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]
Nationality [poem by Mary Gilmore, 12 May 1942]
The Newcastle song [music video, sung by Bob Hudson]
No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest [poem by Mary Gilmore, 29 June 1940]
Our pipes [short story by Henry Lawson]
Rommel’s comments on Australian soldiers [1941-1942]
Shooting the moon [short story by Henry Lawson]

Recent Comments

  • Robert Buntine on No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest [poem by Mary Gilmore, 29 June 1940]
  • Laurie on The Geebung Polo Club [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • rob buntine on No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest [poem by Mary Gilmore, 29 June 1940]
  • Carol on Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
  • Annie Crestani on Under the Southern Cross I Stand [the Australian cricket team’s victory song]

For Australia

Copyright © 2023 · Log in