[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).]
The Luckless Bard to the Flying Blossom
You and I and our kind
Had glees together:
Now in our turn shall we find
Foul friends and weather.
You had the love of the sky,
All the world’s honey:
You are a pauper — and I,
I have no money.
Back in the days that we knew,
Oh, idle fellow!
You had the heart for the blue,
The mouth for the yellow:
You who have scented the sky,
Sat around honey,
You are a pauper — and I,
I have no money.
In the dim place where we go
No sweet rebelling
Burns: for the eyes never glow
Down in our dwelling.
I had the taste of the wine,
You of the honey,
Little white kinsman of mine!
I have no money.
Source:
Shaw Neilson, Heart of Spring, Sydney: The Bookfellow, 1919, page 75
Also published in:
John Shaw Neilson, Ballad and Lyrical Poems, Sydney: The Bookfellow in Australia, 1923, page 77
John Shaw Neilson (edited by R. H. Croll), Collected Poems of John Shaw Neilson, Melbourne: Lothian Book Publishing Company, 1934, page 67
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