[Editor: This poem by William Blocksidge (also known as William Baylebridge) was published in Songs o’ the South (1908).]
In The Woods
When Night descends with her sable robe,
And wraps the earth in shade,
And the stars, o’ershone by the silver globe,
In the heavens begin to fade,
I steal away to the woodland free;
And sweet are the voices that come to me,
Attuned to the soul’s pure harmony,
By the whispering shadows made.
There softly the fairy’s footstep falls
In the dance ’neath the stately trees;
And the cooing dove to its lover calls
Above in the gentle breeze;
And a thousand nameless notes combine,
So sweet and so low that the Muses nine
Must surely inspire at their mystic shrine
The singers, my heart to please
And there is a crystal rill that glides
With babbling cadence by;
And a mossy bank, where the primrose hides,
And the daisies love to lie.
O, come with me to the woodland free,
To list to the night-choir’s symphony,
To trip in the dance with a fairy’s glee,
And Sorrow and Care defy!
Source:
William Blocksidge, Songs o’ the South, London: Watts, 1908, pp. 7-8
Editor’s notes:
list = (archaic) listen
’neath = (vernacular) beneath
o’ershone = (archaic) overshone
rill = a very small brook, creek, or stream (a rivulet)
sable = a colour that is black, dark, or gloomy (“sables” was an archaic term for garments worn for mourning; “sable” in heraldry refers to black); arising from the colour of dark sable fur, as taken from a sable (a furry mammal, Martes zibellina, which is primarily found in Russia and northern East Asia, and noted for its fur which has traditionally been used for clothing); in the context of the Australian Aborigines or African Negroes, a reference to their skin colour as being black
the silver globe = the moon
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