[Editor: This poem by John Le Gay Brereton was published in Hermes: The Magazine of the University of Sydney (Sydney, NSW), 20 November 1894.]
My Sweetheart.
The black-turban’d grasses with circlets of gold
Bow round you, controlled by your servant the wind;
They love you, as all Nature’s children, I’m told,
Obey you — the feathered, the furred or the finned —
For the fishes will swim to the edge of the land,
And the birds have no fear, when you beckon them near
With your dear little sun-browned hand.
Behind you, half-seen, like a dream in a dream,
Are the hills to which sight is unwilling to pass
From the child in the foreground, with brown eyes agleam,
Knee-deep in the green of luxuriant grass;
My imperious love, do you think, as you stand
Like an opening flower, of the marvellous power
In your dear little sun-browned hand?
JACK BRERETON.
Source:
Hermes: The Magazine of the University of Sydney (Sydney, NSW), vol. 10 no. 6, 20 November 1894, p. 12
Editor’s notes:
circlet = a crown or metal ring, usually made from precious metal (with or without precious stones or jewels), designed to be worn on the head as an ornament or as a symbol of a position of power; a plain crown; a small circular object, especially a circular band
turban’d = (vernacular) turbaned (also spelt “turbanned”): wearing a turban, or having the appearance of wearing a turban
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