Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Walter Murdoch (1874–1970). The Oxford Book of Australasian Verse. 1918.

94. The Golden Age

WHEN the morning breaks above us

And the wild sweet stars have fled,

By the faery hands that love us

Wakened you and I will tread

Where the lilacs on the lawn

Shine with all their silver dews,

In the stillness of a dawn

Wrapped in tender primrose hues.

We will hear the strange old song

That the earth croons in her breast,

Echoed by the feathered throng

Joyous from each leafy nest.

Earth, whose dreams are we and they,

With her heart’s deep gladness fills

All our human lips can say,

Or the dawn-fired singer trills.

She is rapt in dreams divine:

As her clouds of beauty pass,

On our glowing hearts they shine,

Mirrored there as in a glass.

So when all the vapours grey

From our flowery paths shall flit,

And the dawn begin the day,

We will sing that song to it

Ere its yellow fervour flies.—

Oh, we are so glad of youth,

Whose first sweetness never dies

Nourished by eternal truth.