[Editor: This poem by Philip Durham Lorimer was published in Songs and Verses by Philip Durham Lorimer: An Australian Bush Poet, 1901.]
Remembrance
O sweet Remembrance, only boon
To closing eve, to pleasant noon :
The only gleam of faded light,
Unsoiled by death’s decaying blight ;
The last of life in life retained, —
Love’s bright and holy flame unstained.
Earth’s trembling joys when shadows bring
The night of death and life takes wing.
When all in sadness leave me here.
And sight is dimmed by sorrow’s tear,
A stranger thro’ this world to roam.
Without a friend, without a home :
No breast to swell devotion’s sigh ;
No lips to say the last “Good-bye” ;
No hand to comfort me in death.
And fondly ease my labouring breath ;
No heart to clasp me to its breast.
And make me feel in dying blest ;—
Then, sweet Remembrance, haste to me.
For in that hour I’ll cling to thee.
I’ll leave on sorrow’s page below
A smile to fade ’neath hope’s bright glow ;
A ray to vanish in the hour
When death has robbed thee of thy power,
And left thee but some nameless clay
To cover o’er in death’s decay.
Thomson River, 1868.
Source:
E. A. Petherick (editor). Songs and Verses by Philip Durham Lorimer: An Australian Bush Poet, William Clowes and Sons, London, 1901, pages 69-70
The Institute of Australian Culture
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