# Leichhardt

Lordly harp, by lordly master wakened from majestic sleep, Yet shall speak and yet shall sing the words which make the fathers weep! Voice surpassing human voices — high, unearthly harmony — Yet shall tell the tale of hero, in exalted years to be! In the ranges, by the rivers, on the uplands, down the dells, Where the sound of wind and wave is, where the mountain anthem swells, Yet shall float the song of lustre, sweet with tears and fair with flame, Shining with a theme of beauty, holy with our Leichhardt's name! Name of him who faced for science thirsty tracts of bitter glow, Lurid lands that no one knows of — two-and-thirty years ago.
Born by hills of hard grey weather, far beyond the northern seas, German mountains were his sponsors, and his mates were German trees; Grandeur of the old-world forests passed into his radiant soul, With the song of stormy crescents where the mighty waters roll. Thus he came to be a brother of the river and the wood — Thus the leaf, the bird, the blossom, grew a gracious sisterhood; Nature led him to her children, in a space of light divine: Kneeling down, he said — "My mother, let me be as one of thine!" So she took him — thence she loved him — lodged him in her home of dreams, Taught him what the trees were saying, schooled him in the speech of streams.
For her sake he crossed the waters — loving her, he left the place Hallowed by his father's ashes, and his human mother's face — Passed the seas and entered temples domed by skies of deathless beam, Walled about by hills majestic, stately spires and peaks supreme! Here he found a larger beauty — here the lovely lights were new On the slopes of many flowers, down the gold-green dells of dew. In the great august cathedral of his holy lady, he Daily worshipped at her altars, nightly bent the reverent knee — Heard the hymns of night and morning, learned the psalm of solitudes; Knew that God was very near him — felt His presence in the woods!
But the starry angel, Science, from the home of glittering wings, Came one day and talked to Nature by melodious mountain springs: "Let thy son be mine," she pleaded; "lend him for a space," she said, "So that he may earn the laurels I have woven for his head!" And the lady, Nature, listened; and she took her loyal son From the banks of moss and myrtle — led him to the Shining One! Filled his lordly soul with gladness — told him of a spacious zone Eye of man had never looked at, human foot had never known. Then the angel, Science, beckoned, and he knelt and whispered low — "I will follow where you lead me" — two-and-thirty years ago.
On the tracts of thirst and furnace — on the dumb, blind, burning plain, Where the red earth gapes for moisture, and the wan leaves hiss for rain, In a land of dry, fierce thunder, did he ever pause and dream Of the cool green German valley and the singing German stream? When the sun was as a menace, glaring from a sky of brass, Did he ever rest, in visions, on a lap of German grass? Past the waste of thorny terrors, did he reach a sphere of rills, In a region yet untravelled, ringed by fair untrodden hills? Was the spot where last he rested pleasant as an old-world lea? Did the sweet winds come and lull him with the music of the sea?
Let us dream so — let us hope so! Haply in a cool green glade, Far beyond the zone of furnace, Leichhardt's sacred shell was laid! Haply in some leafy valley, underneath blue, gracious skies, In the sound of mountain water, the heroic traveller lies! Down a dell of dewy myrtle, where the light is soft and green, And a month like English April sits, an immemorial queen, Let us think that he is resting -- think that by a radiant grave Ever come the songs of forest, and the voices of the wave! Thus we want our sons to find him — find him under floral bowers, Sleeping by the trees he loved so, covered with his darling flowers!
This work is in the public domain in Australia because it was created in Australia and the term of copyright has expired. According to Australian Copyright Council - Duration of Copyright, the following works are public domain:
* published non-government works whose author died before January 1, 1955,
* anonymous or pseudonymous works and photographs published before January 1, 1955, and
* government works published more than 50 years ago (before January 1, 1974).
This work is also in the public domain in the United States because it was first published outside the United States (and not published in the U.S. within 30 days), and it was first published before 1989 without complying with U.S. copyright formalities (renewal and/or copyright notice) and it was in the public domain in Australia on the URAA date (January 1, 1996). This is the combined effect of Australia having joined the Berne Convention in 1928, and of 17 USC 104A with its critical date of January 1, 1996.
Because the Australian copyright term in 1996 was 50 years, the critical date for copyright in the United States under the URAA is January 1, 1946.
This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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