Poem: George Essex Evans by J. Bufton

Singer of pearl-purl songs,
   Beneath thy sunlit skies;
Gone from the wrecks and the wrongs
   And loosed from the toils and the ties,
   Fled as the morning mist flies,
         Sung are thy songs.

Singer of earnest strains,
   Set free, O bard, are thou;
Snapped are life's cords and its chains,
   Soothed are its griefs and its pains;
   Fair are the bays on thy brow,
         A fadeless wreath.

Singer of deathless fame
   Born of the bardic race,
Never shall perish thy name,
   Ages thy worth shall acclaim;
   Australia hath pledged thee a place
         Deep in her heart.

Singer of joys and tears,
   Thy harp yields to thy crown,
Dread not the stream of the years,
   Fear not their flowing or frown,
   Sleep in immortal renown,
         Honoured and loved.

Singer of gain and loss,
   Of Queensland's fallen sons;
Bard of the star and the moss,
   Rest in the shade of the cross,
   Rest while Eternity runs,
         And sing God's songs.

First published in The Mercury, 20 November 1909

Note: George Essex Evans died in Toowoomba, Queensland, on 10 November 1909.

See other mentions of Essex Evans on Matilda, and on Rhymes Rudely Strung.