Requiescat [poem, 28 October 1905]

[Editor: A poem published in The Record, 28 October 1905.]

Requiescat.

She was sweeter by far than the flowers of May,
And we loved her as passionate lovers,
Who live in the light of the beautiful day
That love in its blindness discovers.
Her music was strange to this beautiful sphere;
Now her voice is a silence for ever —
In the bitter wild fall of a sorrowful year
We buried Katlean by the river.

Does she hear in her slumber the voice of the waves,
And the winds on their elphin harps playing;
And the songs of the summers that sing by the graves
Where the loves of her youth are decaying?
O seasons, be kind to her grave, and thereat
May your stormy winds visit her never,
But fly from the spot where we buried our Kat
By the waters of sweet Merri River.

“CATALINE.”

Source:
The Record (Emerald Hill, Vic.), 28 October 1905, p. 4

Editor’s notes:
elphin = (also spelt “elfin”) elf-like; physically small, charming, and delicate, with a merry or mischievous countenance (may also refer to an elf; or, of or relating to elves)

Merri River = a river located in the Western District of Victoria; it begins below the town of Bushfield and flows to Stingray Bay (on the southern coast of Victoria), near to the city of Warrnambool

requiescat = (Latin) “rest”; especially used as an abbreviated form of the Latin phrase “requiescat in pace” (“may he (or she) begin to rest in peace”), which is commonly translated as “rest in peace”, and abbreviated as “R.I.P.”, used as a prayer (or wish) for the repose (peaceful rest) of the souls of the dead