2-015 (Text)

File contents

D'Entrecasteaux' Channel
From: Aurora Australis; or Specimens of Sacred Poetry
John Dunmore Lang
Sydney, G.Eagar, 1826 
Aurora Australis
D'ENTRECASTEAUX' CHANNEL,
VAN DIEMAN'S LAND.
1 SEE! D'Entrecasteaux' Channel opens fair,
And Tasman's Head lyes on the starboard bow.
High rocks and stunted trees meet you where'er
You look around; 'tis a bold coast enow.
With foul wind and crank ship 'twere hard to wear;
A reef of rocks lyes westward long and low.
At ebb tide you may see th'Actaeon lye
A sheer hulk o'er the breakers high and dry.
'Tis a most beauteous Strait! The great South Sea's
Proud waves keep holiday along its shore;
And as the good ship glides before the breeze
Broad bays and isles appear and steep cliffs hoar,
With groves on either hand of ancient trees
Planted by Nature in the days of yore;
Van Dieman's on the left and Bruny's Isle
Forming the starboard shore for many a mile.
But all is still as death! Nor voice of man
Is heard, nor forest warbler's tuneful song.
It seems as if this beauteous world began
To be but yesterday, and th'earth still young
And unpossessed. For tho' the tall black swan
Sits on her nest and sails stately along,
And the green wild-doves their fleet pinions ply,
And the grey eagle tempts the azure sky;
Yet all is still as death! Wild solitude
Reigns undisturbed along the voiceless shore,
And every tree seems standing as it stood
Five thousand years ago. The loud wave's roar
Were music in these wilds! The wise and good,
That wont of old as Hermits to adore
The God of nature in the desart drear,
Might sure have found a fit sojourning here!
May, 1823.