[Editor: This poem by William Blocksidge (also known as William Baylebridge) was published in Songs o’ the South (1908).]
Moreton Bay
Look on the full-fair earth, ye more than blind,
And there behold God’s Paradise indeed;
Then, having looked, say truly if ye need,
Or should expect to ever see defined,
Aught fairer, either to this life assigned
Or past the grave. Such thoughts as these do breed
Within me as my raptured gaze doth feed,
Fair Bay, upon the beauty here I find.
Silver and blue are mixed with green and gold —
For many a mile the magic mazes tend.
The farther isles in purple mist are stoled;
The nearer down to kiss thy wavelets bend —
But stay! such beauty as I here behold
Was never yet, nor may it now be, penned!
Source:
William Blocksidge, Songs o’ the South, London: Watts, 1908, p. 40
Editor’s notes:
aught = anything; anything at all, anything whatsoever
doth = (archaic) does
Moreton Bay = a bay situated on the coast of Queensland, east of Brisbane
ye = (archaic) you (however, still in use in some places, e.g. in Cornwall, Ireland, Newfoundland, and Northern England; it can used as either the singular or plural form of “you”, although the plural form is apparently the more common usage)
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