Lake Macquarie

M.W. 1889

Newcastle Morning Herald & Miners Advocate

Saturday 23 November 1889, page 9

Photograph from our collection: Boats on Lake Macquarie at sunset

Calmly lay the lake that evening,

By the softest breeze caressed,

And the groups of snow-white sea-birds

Had alighted there to rest.

And the wavelets made a murmur,

as they crept along the shore,

Fain to blend their softer music

With the far-off ocean’s roar.

Loth to see the trace of shadows

Darkly trembling on the tide,

Shed the sun his showers of crimson

And of gold, from side to side.

E’en as when despair’s forebodings

Threatening loom around thy soul,

Some bright hope will rise within us,

Rise, and beautify the whole.

And the birds, from bush surrounding,

Softly sang their farewell notes,

And across the sun-lit waters

Slowly came the fishing boats.

Now the beauteous glow of sunset

On the water waxes pale,

And the curlew from the ridges

Send a melancholy wail.

Spreading o’er the scene her shadows

With a tender touch and mild,

Hangs the night, like some fond mother

Bending o’er a sleeping child.

Hark! the sound of distant music

O’er the peaceful water floats.

Tis the voice of the fishers,

Singing as they moor their boats.

Soon the darkening shore’s deserted;

All the sounds and echoes cease;

Save the curlew’s mournful wailing,

Not a murmur breaks the peace.

Oft amid the town’s harsh noises

To that scene my thoughts will roam,

Where the evening fell in silence

And the boats were coming home.

M.W.

This work by Lake Macquarie City Library is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License