What of the worlds within the soul?
A poet has said that strand and lea
Are but, as it were, a pictured scroll
Of the glowing earth and the chanting sea.
That blue-grey hill in a sun-washed sky
Is only a painted shadow thrown
By a sapphire mountain, hero-high,
That my stripped spirit must scale alone.
Naked, unshod, and spear in hand,
Up to the snows where the god-folk dwell,
It must pass from the valley-land,
And heights hold Heaven, and depths hold Hell.
The organ-note of eternal seas
Rolls in music on golden winds,
Strange fruits strengthen the slackening knees.
Flame 'o the sun is a sword that blinds.
What if I climb the hills that seem --
Conning this curious pictured scroll?
Empty the labour as in a dream --
The sapphire mountain's within my soul!
First published in The Sydney Morning Herald, 13 July 1935
Author: Mary Elizabeth Kathleen Dulcie Deamer (1890-1972) was born in Christchurch, New Zealand, and joined a touring theatrical company in 1908. She married in Perth that same year and toured the Far East as an actor. She separated from her husband in 1922 and settled in Sydney, where she remained until her death in 1972. She published 6 novels, 3 poetry collections, 3 short story collections and wrote 9 plays.
Author reference sites: Austlit, Australian Dictionary of Biography
See also.
A poet has said that strand and lea
Are but, as it were, a pictured scroll
Of the glowing earth and the chanting sea.
That blue-grey hill in a sun-washed sky
Is only a painted shadow thrown
By a sapphire mountain, hero-high,
That my stripped spirit must scale alone.
Naked, unshod, and spear in hand,
Up to the snows where the god-folk dwell,
It must pass from the valley-land,
And heights hold Heaven, and depths hold Hell.
The organ-note of eternal seas
Rolls in music on golden winds,
Strange fruits strengthen the slackening knees.
Flame 'o the sun is a sword that blinds.
What if I climb the hills that seem --
Conning this curious pictured scroll?
Empty the labour as in a dream --
The sapphire mountain's within my soul!
First published in The Sydney Morning Herald, 13 July 1935
Author: Mary Elizabeth Kathleen Dulcie Deamer (1890-1972) was born in Christchurch, New Zealand, and joined a touring theatrical company in 1908. She married in Perth that same year and toured the Far East as an actor. She separated from her husband in 1922 and settled in Sydney, where she remained until her death in 1972. She published 6 novels, 3 poetry collections, 3 short story collections and wrote 9 plays.
Author reference sites: Austlit, Australian Dictionary of Biography
See also.
