Poetry [poem by Charles Harpur]

[Editor: This poem by Charles Harpur was published in The Bushrangers; A Play in Five Acts, and Other Poems (1853).]

Poetry.

Rising and setting suns of Liberty —
Mountainous exploits and the wrecks thick strewn
By stormy Passion o’er Life’s treacherous sea,
Relieved with shores of green delight, and boon
And starry dreams and the serene pale moon
Of Pathos, — these with all of which they be
Idealisms, are of Poesy
The bodily temple into fitness hewn,
And for its Soul, all that the mind can seize
Of beauty harmonising with the might
Of natural ties and social sympathies
And that deep spirit of Piety whose flight
Is strongest and most heavenward ’mid the blight
Of mortal misery — its Soul are these.

Source:
Charles Harpur, The Bushrangers; A Play in Five Acts, and Other Poems, Sydney: W. R. Piddington, 1853, page 92

Editor’s notes:
o’er = over (pronounced the same as “oar”, “or”, and “ore”)

pathos = compassion or pity; or an experience, or a work of art, that evokes feelings of compassion or pity

poesy = poetry or the art of poetic composition