Works in the Herald 1931
CHILDREN OF THE SUN

In ideal Christmas holiday weather tens of thousands of Australians are thronging pleasure resorts gathering strength for another year's labor's.

The Children of the Sun are out,
   About the hills and beaches -
The stolid burghers halo and stout,
The tailored sheik, the city lout,
   And plain blokes with their peaches,
And dinkum coves alert and brown;
While over all the sun shines down.

The Children of the Sun are prone To sunlight, play and pleasure; And sober-minded mentors groan And shake their beads and gravely moan O'er all this love of leisure. This lust for sport and sun they say Will surely bring its reckoning day.
The Children of the Sun heed not, But laugh and gather vigor, Where summer days shine gold and hot, They bask in many a sylvan spot To meet a new year's rigor. And who shall say they are not wise? Strength languishes when pleasure dies.
The Children of the Sun but know That while the sun is shining And glad life beckons they must go; For souls too long akin to woe Lost all thro' much repining. Rejuvenation bids them hence, Then who shall cry "Improvidence"?

"Den"
Herald, 30 December 1931, p6

Copyright © Perry Middlemiss 2002