• 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 and booklets
  • Ephemera
  • Poetry and songs
  • Slang
  • Timeline
  • Topics
    • Anzac Day
    • Australia Day
    • Australian Aborigines
    • Australianism
    • Australian literature
    • The Eureka Rebellion
    • Explorers
    • Significant events and commemorative dates

The Seven Sisters [poem by E. J. Brady]

1 October 2016 · Leave a Comment

[Editor: This poem by E. J. Brady was published in The Earthen Floor (1902).]

XXVII.

The Seven Sisters.

By the Word of God the Father
On His third creation morn,
By the Voice of the Eternal
Were the Seven Sisters born.

They shall stand until the Sunrise
And the Sunset be as one;
They shall hold until the Darkness
And the Day are also done.

On their bosoms undulating,
Rocked the first, frail, bark canoe,
Where now, throbbing, palpitating,
Churns the mile-devouring screw.

To and fro their lovers wander,
But their hearts aye turn again
To the surges white, that thunder
On the shores of every main.

In the night-time of the Forests —
Of the Forests far and dim —
They will hear the waters calling,
Oh, so softly calling them.

Yea, the fair, bewitching Sisters,
They, the Kind, the Ever Young,
With their tender liquid voices,
And a plaintive Siren tongue.

They will see, in yearning visions,
White sails gleaming far away;
And they come back, come back ever
To their old sea loves some day.

Oh, the splendour of the story!
Oh, the pathos of the tears!
Oh, the glamor and the glory.
Of the grand historic years!

They can boast no ruined city,
They can speak no tombs sublime;
For they hide in queenly pity
All the wrack and waste of time.

In dead days those Regal Sisters
Saw the crowded Punic quays,
Saw the Greek and Roman galleys
Sweep triumphant through the Seas.

They who give her wealth to London —
As they gave it once to Spain —
They who keep the Vikings safely,
Till the Vikings come again.

They were wedded to the Doges,
They were flattered by high lords;
And they hold their tithes of plunder
From a thousand plundered hoards.

They were mothers unto heroes,
And the men who loved — and slew,
In their shotted hammocks biding,
To the Sisters still are true.

They have seen the pirates’ canvas
On their dark dominions wide,
Who behold the smoke out-trailing
Of the liner in her pride.

Teak or iron! Naught shall matter —
They are still the Sister Seas
Holding in their hearts the secrets
Of uncounted mysteries.

Oh, the Seven Restless Sisters,
Who with swift feet come and go,
From the scented, sunlit tropics
To the Lands of Ice and Snow.

Oh, the Seven laughing Sisters
That the Kings and Heroes knew!
Oh, the Seven Strong Sultanas
In their royal robes of blue!



Source:
E. J. Brady, The Earthen Floor, Grafton (N.S.W.): Grip Newspaper Co., 1902

Editor’s notes:
aye = always, forever

main = the high sea, the open ocean

morn = morning

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

Seven Sisters = the seven seas, i.e. all of the world’s oceans (can also refer to the Pleiades star cluster, named after seven sisters in Greek mythology)

slew = past tense of “slay”; killed

sultana = (also known as a “sultaness”) a woman who is part of a sultan’s family (mother, sister, wife, daughter), especially the wife or concubine of a sultan; a concubine or mistress (may also refer to a dried seedless grape, seedless raisin, golden raisin, or to the seedless grape itself)

wrack = wreck, wreckage, especially a wrecked ship; something destroyed, or a remnant thereof (such as a shipwreck, or a piece of wreckage); collapse, destruction, or ruin (as in the phrase “wrack and ruin”)

yea = yes; indeed; truly; an affirmation (especially an affirmative vote), an indication of assent

Filed Under: poetry Tagged With: E. J. Brady (author) (1869-1952), poem, SourceSLV, The Earthen Floor (E. J. Brady 1902), year1902

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

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

Primary Sidebar

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

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

  • Western bush fire: Several crops burnt [5 January 1906]
  • Buy “Australian-Made” [by W. R. Bagnall, 22 June 1928]
  • The Bad Boy [poem regarding Henry Parkes, 12 May 1877]
  • A rod in pickle [political cartoon regarding Henry Parkes, 12 May 1877]
  • “Devil’s luck” [short story, 20 December 1901]

Top Posts & Pages

  • Surely God was a Lover [poem by John Shaw Neilson]
  • Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
  • Timeline of Australian history and culture
  • Freedom on the Wallaby [poem by Henry Lawson, 16 May 1891]
  • The drover’s wife [by Henry Lawson]

Categories

Archives

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]

Search this site



For Australia


Copyright © 2022 · Log in