Back Aa

Reedy River

Close

<h2>REEDY RIVER</h2> <div class="poetry"> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> Ten miles down Reedy River A pool of water lies, And all the year it mirrors The changes in the skies, And in that pool’s broad bosom Is room for all the stars; Its bed of sand has drifted O’er countless rocky bars. </div> <div class="stanza"> Around the lower edges There waves a bed of reeds, Where water rats are hidden And where the wild duck breeds; And grassy slopes rise gently To ridges long and low, Where groves of wattle flourish And native bluebells grow.{29} </div> <div class="stanza"> Beneath the granite ridges The eye may just discern Where Rocky Creek emerges From deep green banks of fern; And standing tall between them, The grassy sheoaks cool The hard, blue-tinted waters Before they reach the pool. </div> <div class="stanza"> Ten miles down Reedy River One Sunday afternoon, I rode with Mary Campbell To that broad bright lagoon; We left our horses grazing Till shadows climbed the peak, And strolled beneath the sheoaks On the banks of Rocky Creek. </div> <div class="stanza"> Then home along the river That night we rode a race, And the moonlight lent a glory To Mary Campbell’s face; And I pleaded for my future All thro’ that moonlight ride, Until our weary horses Drew closer side by side.{30} </div> <div class="stanza"> Ten miles from Ryan’s crossing And five below the peak, I built a little homestead On the banks of Rocky Creek; I cleared the land and fenced it And ploughed the rich red loam, And my first crop was golden When I brought Mary home. . . . . . . . . . . Now still down Reedy River The grassy sheoaks sigh, And the waterholes still mirror The pictures in the sky; And over all for ever Go sun and moon and stars, While the golden sand is drifting Across the rocky bars; </div> <div class="stanza"> But of the hut I builded There are no traces now. And many rains have levelled The furrows of the plough; And my bright days are olden, For the twisted branches wave And the wattle blossoms golden On the hill by Mary’s grave. </div> </div></div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

1 of 2

2 of 2