Under a Kurrajong [poem by John Shaw Neilson]

[Editor: This poem by John Shaw Neilson was published in Heart of Spring (1919) and Collected Poems of John Shaw Neilson (1934).]

Under a Kurrajong

Here is the ecstasy
Of sun-fed wine and song:
Drink! it is melody
Under a kurrajong.

What sweeter space on earth
For glistening youth and maid
To find the quiet mirth
Under the quiet shade?

What sweeter place than this
For loving eyes to see,
For lovers’ lips to kiss
Under the lovers’ tree?

It is the time to blow
Hot kisses on the Spring,
When dreams begin to go
Under the blossoming.

Let not the mouth be cold:
Love is not over-long:
Only to-day is gold
Under a kurrajong.

Source:
Shaw Neilson, Heart of Spring, The Bookfellow, Sydney, 1919, page 74

Also published in:
John Shaw Neilson (editor: R. H. Croll), Collected Poems of John Shaw Neilson, Lothian Publishing Company, Melbourne, 1934 [May 1949 reprint], page 66

Editor’s notes:
kurrajong = a genus of several species of trees and large shrubs (Brachychiton, also known as Bottletree), common in Eastern Australia