• 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

Underneath the Daisies [poem by Agnes Neale]

2 May 2016 · Leave a Comment

[Editor: This poem by Agnes Neale was published in Shadows and Sunbeams (1890).]

Underneath the Daisies.

Underneath the daisies, will all pain and sorrow cease?
Will this aching void of longing unsatisfied be o’er?
Underneath the daisies, will my heart find rest and peace
In a calmness and a quiet to be broken never more?

I have longed for light and sunshine as the growing flowers long;
I have sought for love and sympathy, but always sought in vain:
There has been a troubled refrain that has run through every song,
And the bloom of every pleasure has held a sting of pain.

Underneath the daisies, will the refrain never sound?
Will the sting be drawn from pain, will the joy be what it ought?
Underneath the daisies, will true sympathy be found,
And love and light and sunshine never more be vainly sought?

Underneath the daisies — oh! it seems so much to me!
Underneath the daisies I will rest me and be still,
Where eyes can never hurt me, for their scorn I cannot see,
And where cruel words can never more my heart with anguish fill.

Underneath the daisies I shall be so glad to rest;
While above the pink-fringed watchers the solemn tree-tops nod,
I shall be safely sheltered with the One who loves me best —
For underneath the daisies means to be at home with God.



Source:
Agnes Neale, Shadows and Sunbeams, Adelaide: Burden & Bonython, 1890, pages 76-77

Editor’s notes:
o’er = over (pronounced the same as “oar”, “or”, and “ore”)

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

pink-fringed watchers = daisies [for example, see the poem “What Have You Done?” in the same book, which includes the line “Daisies, with pink-fringed solemn eyes”]

underneath the daisies = buried under the soil; buried in a grave

Filed Under: poetry Tagged With: Agnes Neale (Caroline Agnes Leane) (author) (1849-1892), poem, Shadows and Sunbeams (Agnes Neale 1890), SourceHathiTrust, year1890

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

  • Australian slang
  • Freedom on the Wallaby [poem by Henry Lawson, 16 May 1891]
  • The drover’s wife [by Henry Lawson]
  • The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • The Aboriginal Mother [poem by Eliza Hamilton Dunlop, 13 December 1838]

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