Lulled by song of bird, and wind, melodies of seas; <br />Waiting for the white man's foot, through the centuries, <br />Pent in solitudes enchanted, dreamed the mighty trees. <br />Empires blazed like forest fires, then in darkness fell. <br />Other shores and Eldorados drew the caravel, <br />Till the sound of English voices broke the slumber spell. <br /> <br />Singing now by fallen Rome, under Grecian sky, <br />Waving where Thermopylae, saw the heroes die. <br />Roaming where young Helen trod, in her girlish joy, <br />Ere the gods in battle joined on the plains of Troy. <br /> <br />Wandering where paladins rode with Charlemagne, <br />And of their sweet vernal leaves, Beauty's hands are fain; <br />Beauty that the impress bears of sceptreless Valois, <br />Gathers from the sapling crests rubied, amber store. <br /> <br />Following the caravans, roving in Algiers, <br />Gone the legions with their noise, Moorish cavaliers; <br />Chanting where proud Carthage stood—dust is all her pride. <br />By the shores that hear your anthem, how the triremes glide. <br /> <br />Whispering by Shelley's tomb, by the grave of Keats, <br />Listening while the loving wind every song repeats. <br />Baring limbs whose loveliness dims the sculptor's eye, <br />Daphnes fearless of the god, morning bringeth nigh. <br /> <br />Careless of the nightingale ever singing near, <br />Sighing in their loneliness for the voices here, <br />Call of bell-bird by the stream, magpie hymn at morn; <br />In a land their fathers knew, not murmuring forlorn. <br /> <br />Trysting ever with the morning, following the sun. <br />Here if stolen sunlight gild them, there the day begun <br />Tinging all my dreams with glory, as I hear them sing— <br />World! to you may we the nation, grace and beauty bring.<br /><br />Frank Samuel Williamson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/gum-trees/
