Lake Macquaire

E. J. Bowling, 1888

Newcastle Morning Herald & Miners' Advocate

Tuesday 1 May 1888, page 2

Oh! Let me sing, fair lake of thee,

Enshrined amid thy forests green,

The sunlight on thy waters free,

The snow-white sail, the verdure, green.

I’ve seen Loch Leven’s storied isle,

And bathed in Devon’s crystal tide;

I’ve basked in famed Killarney’s smile,

And played the reel by Ennis side.

But oh! For wild untrammelled grace,

For gorgeous nature vast and grand,

All other scenes to thee give place

In this fair isle or distant land.

Behold I the virgin forests lower

In savage gloom upon thy shore,

While fancy fills each hidden bower

With dusky tribes they screened of yore.

The shadows of a hundred hills

Die deep in thy reflecting waves;

The tinklings of a hundred rills

Resound among thy rocky caves.

I feel a mystic sense of awe

When evening fiinds me by this shore;

The solitude no murmurs thaw -

Its home is here for evermore.

What fairy isles! What sheltered bays!

What golden gleams of shining sand!

A wild abandon meets thy gaze,

And fills the soul with rapture grand.

Alone! Alone! No mortal near -

What ecstasy to feel that thrill!

No voice, save Nature’s, greets the ear;

How calm the lake, the trees how still.

Fair queen of Austral’s waters, hail!

I greet thee with a poet’s joy;

I sing the praise of each soft gale

That meets thy breast in rapture coy.

I love thee that no human hand

Has yet effaced thy first-born hues;

Thy scenes are Nature’s, wild and grand;

Thy charms the world cannot refuse.

E.J Bowling. Dora Creek, April 19, 1888

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