In the Days When the World Was Wide, and Other Verses

The Blue Mountains

 Above the ashes straight and tall,
  Through ferns with moisture dripping,
 I climb beneath the sandstone wall,
  My feet on mosses slipping.

 Like ramparts round the valley's edge
  The tinted cliffs are standing,
 With many a broken wall and ledge,
  And many a rocky landing.

 And round about their rugged feet
  Deep ferny dells are hidden
 In shadowed depths, whence dust and heat
  Are banished and forbidden.

 The stream that, crooning to itself,
  Comes down a tireless rover,
 Flows calmly to the rocky shelf,
  And there leaps bravely over.

 Now pouring down, now lost in spray
  When mountain breezes sally,
 The water strikes the rock midway,
  And leaps into the valley.

 Now in the west the colours change,
  The blue with crimson blending;
 Behind the far Dividing Range,
  The sun is fast descending.

 And mellowed day comes o'er the place,
  And softens ragged edges;
 The rising moon's great placid face
  Looks gravely o'er the ledges.