[Editor: This poem by John Shaw Neilson was published in Heart of Spring (1919), Ballad and Lyrical Poems (1923), and Collected Poems of John Shaw Neilson (1934).]
Dear Little Cottage
’Tis not for the lilies, white lilies and tall:
The grass has outlived them, it grows by the wall
Of the dear little cottage that I know ..
’Tis not for the cherries — the cherries are wild,
And into their branches has clambered no child
To drink up the blood of a cherry ..
’Tis not for the river, hemmed in by the weir,
Or the lilt of the winds in the glow of the year
When the birds o’ the water make merry ..
A spell is upon me, and why should I stray
When I have fine company all the long day
In the dear little cottage that I know.
It is for the voices, the voices that blessed,
The lips that made music, the hands that caressed
In the dear little cottage that I know.
It is for the shadows that sit by the door,
The feet that go tripping the old broken floor
At night when the fiddles are shrieking.
It is for the counsel, long-loving and wise,
The hopes that were born in a legion of sighs ..
The lips (oh, the cold lips) are speaking.
It is for a temple enshrouded in mist,
A rosy girl raising her face to be kissed
In the dear little cottage that I know.
Source:
Shaw Neilson, Heart of Spring, Sydney: The Bookfellow, 1919, pages 54-55
Also published in:
John Shaw Neilson, Ballad and Lyrical Poems, Sydney: The Bookfellow in Australia, 1923, page 61
John Shaw Neilson (edited by R. H. Croll), Collected Poems of John Shaw Neilson, Melbourne: Lothian Book Publishing Company, 1934, pages 48-49
Editor’s notes:
o’ = a vernacular abbreviation of the word “of”
’tis = (archaic) a contraction of “it is”
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