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Poems about History
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I had written him a letter which I had, for want of better
Knowledge, sent to where I met him down the Lachlan, years ago,
He crouches, and buries his face on his knees,
And hides in the dark of his hair;
LO, praise of the prowess of people-kings of spear-armed Danes, in days long sped,
I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water
Jack fell down and broke his crown
They mustered us up with a royal din,
In wearisome weeks of drought.
The London lights are far abeam
Behind a bank of cloud,
Bring me a quart of colonial beer
And some doughy damper to make good cheer,
Visit of Hope to Sydney Cove Where Sydney Cove her lucid bosom swells,
Weary and listless, sad and slow,
Without any conversation,
We boast no more of our bloodless flag, that rose from a nation's slime;
Better a shred of a deep-dyed rag from the storms of the o
I stopped to call a taxi in the heart of Babylon.
At the pavement’s edge I stood - the traffic writhing on
The night too quickly passes
And we are growing old,
Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv'ry Tay!
Alas! I am very sorry to say
On the black gallows, one-armed friend,
The paladins are dancing, dancing
Damn it all! all this our South stinks peace.
You whoreson dog, Papiols, come! Let's to music!
The daylight moon looked quietly down
Through the gathering dusk on London town
Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled,
Scots, wham Bruce has aften led,
No soft-skinned Durham steers are they,
No Devons plump and red,
I
In a solitude of the sea
"Drear cell! along whose lonely bounds, Unvisited by light,
As the nations sat together, grimly waiting —
The fierce and ancient nations battle-scarred —
Who stands on that cliff, like a figure of stone,
Unmoving and tall in the light of the sky,
Across the Queensland border line
The mobs of cattle go;
Not for the wealth of thy teeming markets, Roaring factory, thronging way,
It was the good ship Caroline,
That ploughed the Channel foam,
The shades of night had fallen at last,
When through the house a shadow passed,
The breaking waves dashed high
On a stern and rock-bound coast,
Beneath the golden eagle's shade
Gleam restless eyes of steely grey,
Talpra magyar, hí a haza!
Itt az idő, most vagy soha!
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