[Editor: This poem by Grant Hervey was published in Australians Yet and Other Verses, 1913.]
Star-Set
All night the stars have sped across
The paddock-lands of sky ;
With shining eyes and manes a-toss
They swung in squadrons by.
Within the thicket of the winds
They rested at mid-day —
The spears of morn gleam faint, and, lo,
The star-bands ride away.
Along the plains of dreamy night
The white battalions go ;
Down glens of misty, drifting light
The young stars ride a-row.
Beyond the scarping wall of dawn
They ride and disappear ;
Their clinking bridles far away
Sound cymbal-like and clear.
The ford of flowing song they pass ;
I see their stirrups gleam
Athwart the world like gems a-mass
Upon a velvet dream,
Down dark ravines they swiftly ride,
Pursued by trooper Day.
My star-friends wave Good-night and hide
Beyond their mountains grey.
* * * * *
The whistling stars grow silenter,
The earth is dark with light ;
The star-troops mount and softly spur
Across the plains of Night.
Source:
Grant Hervey. Australians Yet and Other Verses, Thomas C. Lothian, Melbourne, 1913, pages 66-67
The Institute of Australian Culture
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