Out in the wild and wanton weather,
Under the arc of ashen sky,
The black, carved banksias bend together,
And the screaming gulls go winging by!
Tossed and torn in the wind's embraces,
The tea-tree turns to the rain-swept town,
And the daisies whirl in the sandy places,
Where the first, white buds are shaken down!
Under the whip of the stormy weather,
Shouting, the sea comes rolling in!
The white spray lifts in the air like a feather,
And the glistening foam-balls reel and spin.
High on the beach the boats are lifted,
Spread by the wall where the brown nets blow,
And the broken shells from the deep have drifted,
White like a bank of heaped-up snow!
Out in the wild and wanton weather,
Strung with a crazy joy go I --
I and the wind and the sea together,
Tossing our arms to the swollen sky!
First published in The Sydney Morning Herald, 23 January 1932
