• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

The Institute of Australian Culture

Heritage, history, and heroes; literature, legends, and larrikins

  • Home
  • Articles
  • Biographies
  • Books
  • Ephemera
  • Poetry & songs
    • Recommended poetry
    • Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
    • Poetry and songs, 1901-1954
    • Rock music and pop music [videos]
    • Early music [videos]
  • Slang
  • Timeline
    • Timeline of Australian history and culture
    • Calendar of Australian history and culture
    • Significant events and commemorative dates
  • Topics

The Children [poem by Norman L. Beurle, 12 May 1900]

12 May 2019 · Leave a Comment

[Editor: This poem by Norman L. Beurle was published in The Weekly Times (Melbourne), 12 May 1900.]

The Children.

(To my old scholars.)

Away in the city, years ago,
I made me friends of the boys and girls;
I warmed my heart in the golden glow
Of smiling faces and sunny curls.

Away from the city — far away,
I trod the pathway that God decreed;
But ever the echo of children’s play
Came to my heart in its hour of need.

Away in the city, a week ago,
I sought the boys and the girls once more;
But all the faces I used to know
Had passed for aye from the old school door.

My heart was sad and my eyes were wet
For the dear young faces of olden days,
Till a voice said, “Brother, you forget!
Go seek them out in the world’s wide ways.”

Away in the city, there, at last,
I found the children — and one was tall
And strong as the poplar that mocks the blast,
From its home beyond the orchard wall.

And one was grand in her pure-souled truth,
And scorned the evil and loved the right;
While one, from a shadow’d and crippl’d youth,
Had cast around him a gleaming light.

And one was preaching with face aglow,
The wondrous story of Love divine;
And one, by the side of a sick bed low,
Was pouring her treasures of oil and wine.

And one was guiding, with tender hand,
The frail, wee feet of a little child,
And pointing the way to the Promised Land,
The home of the gentle and undefiled.

And one I missed, for he stands to-day
Beneath the colors we love so well,
On Afric’s veldt, and I, kneeling, pray
“God keep him safe from the shot and shell!”

And one I found not. One summer night,
She said “Good-bye” to the old class room,
To wait for us in the clearer light,
To beckon us on through the darker gloom.

O, laughing faces and gleaming eyes!
My heart would greet you from far away,
And listen and wait for your sweet replies,
And gain new strength from the prayers ye pray.

Away in the City, bright and fair,
Our paths shall meet at the Master’s throne;
And you and I shall be scholars there
Till all the lessons of Love are known.

NORMAN L. BEURLE.
Kenmare, 26/4/1901.



Source:
The Weekly Times (Melbourne, Vic.), 12 May 1900, p. 13

Also published in:
The Colac Herald (Colac, Vic.), 18 May 1900, p. 6
West Gippsland Gazette (Warragul, Vic.), 29 May 1900, p. 4

Editor’s notes:
Afric = Africa

aye = always, forever

the colors = a national flag; in the context of the British Empire, the Union Flag (also known as the Union Jack); a military banner or flag; a ship’s flag; an identifying flag or uniform

Master = in a religious context, and capitalized, a reference to Jesus or God

Promised Land = a place, state or condition which is believed to provide much happiness, fulfillment, success, a better life, or the realisation of hopes; Heaven; in a Biblical context, the land of Canaan

veldt = plains of southern Africa; open country, grassland with few bushes or trees

wee = little, very small, diminutive (can also mean: very early, e.g. “the wee hours of the morning”)

Old words/spelling in the original text:
ye (you)

Vernacular spelling in the original text:
crippl’d (crippled)
shadow’d (shadowed)

Filed Under: poetry Tagged With: Norman L. Beurle (1876-1931) (author), poem, SourceTrove, year1900

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Australian flag, Kangaroo, Wattle, 100hThe Institute of Australian Culture
Heritage, history, and heroes. Literature, legends, and larrikins. Stories, songs, and sages.

Search this site

Featured books

The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses, by Banjo Paterson A Book for Kids, by C. J. Dennis  The Bulletin Reciter: A Collection of Verses for Recitation from The Bulletin The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, by C. J. Dennis The Complete Inner History of the Kelly Gang and Their Pursuers, by J. J. Kenneally The Foundations of Culture in Australia, by P. R. Stephensen The Australian Crisis, by C. H. Kirmess Such Is Life, by Joseph Furphy
More books (full text)

Featured lists

Timeline of Australian history and culture
A list of significant Australiana
Significant events and commemorative dates
Australian slang
Books (full text)
Australian literature
Rock music and pop music (videos)
Folk music and bush music (videos)
Early music (videos)
Recommended poetry
Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
Poetry and songs, 1901-1954
Australian explorers
Topics
Links

Featured posts

Advance Australia Fair: How the song became the Australian national anthem
Brian Cadd [music videos and biography]
Ned Kelly: Australian bushranger
Under the Southern Cross I Stand [the Australian cricket team’s victory song]

Some Australian authors

E. J. Brady
John Le Gay Brereton
C. J. Dennis
Mary Hannay Foott
Joseph Furphy
Mary Gilmore
Charles Harpur
Grant Hervey
Lucy Everett Homfray
Rex Ingamells
Henry Kendall
“Kookaburra”
Henry Lawson
Jack Moses
“Dryblower” Murphy
John Shaw Neilson
John O’Brien (Patrick Joseph Hartigan)
“Banjo” Paterson
Marie E. J. Pitt
A. G. Stephens
P. R. Stephensen
Agnes L. Storrie (Agnes L. Kettlewell)

Recent Posts

  • A billabong: Goulbourn River [postcard, 27 November 1907]
  • Dear Mac [postcard, early 20th Century]
  • The New to the Old [poem by Randolph Bedford, 3 January 1896]
  • New Year greetings [postcard, early 20th Century]
  • New Year greetings [postcard, early 20th Century]

Top Posts & Pages

  • Under the Southern Cross I Stand [the Australian cricket team’s victory song]
  • Australian slang
  • Timeline of Australian history and culture
  • Click Go the Shears [folk music, lyrics; traditional Australian song, 1890s]
  • The Man from Snowy River [poem by Banjo Paterson]

Archives

Categories

Posts of note

The Bastard from the Bush [poem, circa 1900]
A Book for Kids [by C. J. Dennis, 1921]
Click Go the Shears [traditional Australian song, 1890s]
Core of My Heart [“My Country”, poem by Dorothea Mackellar, 24 October 1908]
Freedom on the Wallaby [poem by Henry Lawson, 16 May 1891]
The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]
Nationality [poem by Mary Gilmore, 12 May 1942]
The Newcastle song [music video, sung by Bob Hudson]
No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest [poem by Mary Gilmore, 29 June 1940]
Our pipes [short story by Henry Lawson]
Rommel’s comments on Australian soldiers [1941-1942]
Shooting the moon [short story by Henry Lawson]

Recent Comments

  • Annie Crestani on Under the Southern Cross I Stand [the Australian cricket team’s victory song]
  • Peter Pearsall on The Clarence [poem by Jack Moses]
  • Trevor Hurst on Timeline of Australian history and culture
  • Ju on Under the Southern Cross I Stand [the Australian cricket team’s victory song]
  • David Carroll on Queensland [poem by Philip Durham Lorimer]

For Australia

Copyright © 2023 · Log in