[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).]
Little White Girl
Fears are mine for a face so pretty!
Violets perish, lilies are few:
There is an ache in my heart for you:
In all the tawdry, treacherous city
You are the one thing white and clean,
The only riches where all is mean,
Little white girl so pale and pretty!
Fears are mine for a face so pretty!
I have been lover of lips and chins,
And a listener to violins
Crying for love and calling for pity;
And it all comes back with your eyes and hair …
But the darkness threatens you everywhere,
Little white girl, so pale and pretty!
Source:
Shaw Neilson, Heart of Spring, Sydney: The Bookfellow, 1919, page 58
Also published in:
John Shaw Neilson, Ballad and Lyrical Poems, Sydney: The Bookfellow in Australia, 1923, page 74
John Shaw Neilson (edited by R. H. Croll), Collected Poems of John Shaw Neilson, Melbourne: Lothian Book Publishing Company, 1934, page 52
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