• 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
  • Slang
  • Timeline
  • Topics
    • Anzac Day
    • Australia Day
    • Australian Aborigines
    • Australianism
    • Australian literature
    • The Eureka Rebellion
    • Explorers
    • Significant events and commemorative dates

Lost [poem by Marie E. J. Pitt]

25 April 2014 · Leave a Comment

[Editor: This poem by Marie E. J. Pitt was published in The Horses of the Hills and Other Verses (1911).]

Lost.

Once, when the pall of the dusk had folden
The old world, haggard and brown,
And veiled the purple and rose and golden
Streets of the Sunset Town,
And the queen moon came with her wan white maidens,
Gathering stars for her crown,
We watched them weave her a wondrous garland,
Ingathered from far and nigh,
Rubies and sapphires and pearls of starland,
And you were a king — and I
Was queen of the islands, the white moon islands
On the outer rim o’ the sky.

The wind sprites wove us a tented palace
Of amethyst woofed with fawn,
And the pale moon-lilies for plate and chalice
We plucked from a peri’s lawn,
While the old star-sentinels marched beneath us
To the camp of the blood-red dawn.
Soul of my soul! in a wild red dawning,
Long left in the years’ dim wake,
Each lost the other for ever and ever;
But still for the old sake’s sake,
I seek you, aye, ‘mid the world-worn faces
In mazes the earth folk make.

There are stars, bright stars, on the world-ways gleaming,
White pilot stars kind and true;
But a soul-star beamed on the hills of dreaming
That never the earth-skies knew.
Ah, love! for the islands, the lost moon islands,
Where the bitter-sweet garlands grew!
There were steps of gold to the isles up yonder,
In a year that has passed away;
Shall we ever find them again, I wonder?
Gleaming in skies o’ grey,
Ever it seems that the stars are weeping,
While the queen moon answers Nay!

But still in the dusk, when my heart is weeping
The tears that mine eyes must keep,
When the great white moon like a ghost comes creeping
Out over the dreamland deep,
I greet the islands, the pale moon islands,
That whisper me in my sleep.
And, aye, when a moonless wild night is falling
On a blind world choking with fears,
I hear your voice in the winds a-calling
Like a song to my startled ears;
And I rise to follow. But where shall I follow,
My star of the stormy years?



Source:
Marie E. J. Pitt, The Horses of the Hills and Other Verses, Melbourne: Specialty Press, 1911, pages 27-28

Filed Under: poetry Tagged With: Marie E. J. Pitt, poem, SourceArchiveOrg, The Horses of the Hills and Other Verses (Marie E. J. Pitt 1911), year1911

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

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

Primary Sidebar

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

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

  • Vale! Percy Mahoney [by H. A. Burton, 14 December 1950]
  • Early-day sportsman’s death [obituary of Percy Mahoney, 7 December 1950]
  • Visits to the IAC site from various countries
  • Poems by J. Shaw Neilson [book review, 22 December 1923]
  • “Australia in Palestine” [book review, 6 November 1919]

Top Posts & Pages

  • Rommel’s comments on Australian soldiers [1941-1942]
  • The Man from Snowy River [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • The Bastard from the Bush [poem, circa 1900]
  • Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
  • Australian slang

Categories

Archives

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

  • Rawlinson R on Rommel’s comments on Australian soldiers [1941-1942]
  • Mike Gregory on Australian slang
  • Peter Morgan on Rise of the wool industry: John Macarthur’s work for Australia [chapter 10 of “The story of Australia” by Martin Hambleton]
  • raymond on Ballad and Lyrical Poems [by John Shaw Neilson, 1923]
  • IAC on Ballad and Lyrical Poems [by John Shaw Neilson, 1923]

Search this site



For Australia


Copyright © 2022 · Log in