The Hour of the Parting [poem by John Shaw Neilson]

[Editor: This poem by John Shaw Neilson was published in Heart of Spring (1919) and Collected Poems of John Shaw Neilson (1934). It was also published in Ballad and Lyrical Poems (1923) under the title of “Hour of Parting”.]

The Hour of the Parting

Shall we assault the pain?
It is the time to part:
Let us of Love again
Eat the impatient heart.

There is a gulf behind
Dull voice and fallen lip,
The blue smoke of the mind,
The gray light on the ship.

Parting is of the cold
That stills the loving breath,
Dimly we taste the old
The pitiless meal of Death.

Source:
Shaw Neilson, Heart of Spring, Sydney: The Bookfellow, 1919, page 86

Also published in:
John Shaw Neilson, Ballad and Lyrical Poems, Sydney: The Bookfellow in Australia, 1923, page 96 [under the title of “Hour of Parting”]
John Shaw Neilson (edited by R. H. Croll), Collected Poems of John Shaw Neilson, Melbourne: Lothian Book Publishing Company, 1934, page 77