Pacific Verse
p. 73 · Read in the full issue
On Leaving Papua
FAREWELL, dear lovely isle of ease; Now must I leave thy verdant shores, For time is swift and fate decrees I dwell in other climes than yours.
No more thy hills and clouded vales Shall echo with my joyous song.
No more I’ll seek the shaded streams That run thy sun-kissed hills among.
How oft I’ve loved to wander there Where tropic glades with beauty glow, And listen to the bubbling streams, Whose secret I shall never know.
No more to watch the frigate birds Hang motionless against the sky, Or watch the lazy lakatois As they go slowly sailing by.
That wondrous hour before the dawrr When feathered songsters stir the trees, And fill the air with sweet, glad praise Harmonious in their melodies.
Those sunset hours, when glorious skies Made of the earth a hallowed place.
Alas! Those lovely charms must fade But memory time can ne’er efface.
Dear land of sunny golden days Bathed ip the blue of tropic seas.
Forever will I sing thy praise And love thy solitude and peace.
Pauline Hodge.
461 Riversdale Road, Surrey Hills, E.lO, Melbourne.