Not a bird disturbs the air!
There is quiet everywhere;
Over plains and over woods
What a mighty stillness broods.
Even the grasshoppers keep
[All the birds and insects keep]
Where the coolest shadows sleep;
Even the busy ants are found
Resting in their pebbled mound;
Even the locust clingeth now
In silence to the barky bough:
And over hills and over plains
Quiet, vast and slumbrous, reigns.
Only there's a drowsy humming
From yon warm lagoon slow coming:
'Tis the dragon-hornet - see!
All bedaubed resplendently
With yellow on a tawny ground -
Each rich spot nor square nor round,
But rudely heart-shaped, as it were
The blurred and hasty impress there,
Of vermeil-crusted seal
Dusted o'er with golden meal:
Only there's a droning where
Yon bright beetle gleams the air -
Gleams it in its droning flight
[Tracks it in its gleaming flight]
With a slanting track of light,
Till rising in the sunshine higher,
[Rising in the sunshine higher,]
Its shards flame out like gems on fire.
[Till its shards flame out like fire.]
Every other thing is still,
Save the ever wakeful rill,
Whose cool murmur only throws
A cooler comfort round Repose;
Or some ripple in the sea
Of leafy boughs, where, lazily,
Tired Summer, in her forest bower
Turning with the noontide hour,
Heaves a slumbrous breath, ere she
Once more slumbers peacefully.
0 'tis easeful here to lie
Hidden from Noon's scorching eye,
In this grassy cool recess
Musing thus of Quietness.
Notes
two versions of this poem have been located. The relevant changes are included in the text in square brackets, i.e. "[...]".
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Comments
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I think there is rain coming or a storm brewing. He speaks of everything being still and peaceful but then the activity of the insects tells me that they are aware of a change, perhaps the last 2 lines being 'the quiet before the storm'
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interesting, unique, challenging
Harpur moves from quiet to noise and back again in a poetry journey. He takes me on this journey is the stillness of his restful sky, as he paints a strange picture of nature. It appears a troubled one, not at rest, and it belies the quiet beginning. Grasshoppers, ants and locusts are more fiends of the Bible than friends of the Australian landscape. I do not understand how he can find it "easeful to lie."
Nevertheless, the poem is well written with perfect metre and excellent rhyme. I find it interesting, yet disturbing in its emotion. It therefore has an impact, but a disturbing one, not a restful one as Harpur appears to enjoy. -
Oh the heaviness of the summer sun and relishing in that fitful breeze. Bringing images of the drone of bees and freshing mown lawns. Quite beautiful indeed.
Willow
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