The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954)(about) |
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Monday 25 November 1867
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2 corrections, most recently by Deas - Show corrections
BELL BIRDS.
By channels of coolness the echoes are calling,
And down the dim gorges I hear the creek falling ; It lives in the mountain where moss and the sedges Touch with their beauty the banks and ledges.
Through breaks of the cedar and sycamore bowers Struggles the light that is love to the flowers.
And, softer than slumber and sweeter than singing, The notes of the bell-birds are running and ringing.
The silver-voiced bell-birds, the darlings of daytime ! They sing in September their songs of the May-time;
When shadows wax strong and the thunder-bolts hurtle. They hide with their fear in the leaves of the myrtle : When rain and the sunbeams shine mingled together, They start up like fairies that follow fair weather;
And straightway the hues of their feathers unfolden
Are the green and the purple, the blue and the golden. October, the maiden of bright yellow tresses, Loiters for love in these cool wildernesses ; Loiters, knee-deep, in the grasses to listen,
Where dripping rocks gleam and the leafy pools glisten! Then is the time when the water-moons splendid
Break with their gold, and are scattered or blended Over the creek, till the woodlands have warning
Of songs of the bell-bird and wings of the Morning. Welcome as waters unkissed by the summers
Are the voices of bell-birds to thirsty far-comers.
When fiery December sets foot in the forest And the need of the wayfarer presses the sorest, Pent in the ridges for ever and ever
The bell-birds direct him to spring and to river
With ring, and with ripple, like runnels whose torrents Are toned by the pebbles and leaves in the currents. Often I sit, looking back to a childhood,
Mixt with the sights and the sounds of the wildwood, Longing for power and the sweetness to fashion,
Lyrics with beats like the heartbeats of Passion; Songs interwoven of lights, and of laughters
Borrowed from bell-birds in far forest-rafters; So I might keep in the city and alleys
The beauty and strength of the deep mountain-valley; Charming to slumber the pain of my losses
With glimpses of creeks and a vision of mosses.
HENRY KENDALL.
MARRIAGE OR DIVORCED PERSONS.-As readers paper remarks that the ladies a¡|¿8 0f the follies, ligure in the Divorce Court aj-attendant upon mar ^ElMW8p-pers Ä s"eem to be very avene to AT-« those bonds M*ich they once, "":"feJoivement. In the year 1865 forty-nine di- vorced persons again braved the dangers of matri- mony. Twenty-three gentlemen, who had got rid of their wives, replaced them by as many spinsters. Four gentlemen similarly situated, but of a bolder order of mind, sought in the society of four widows a return of that bliss which had vanished atthe inter- ference of Sir Cresswell Cresswell or Sir James Wilde, and seventeen bachelors and three widowers, men or
unexampled courage, led to the altar twenty divorced
ladies.