Archibald Thomas Strong

Here you will find the Poem Sonnets of the Empire: Australia 1914 of poet Archibald Thomas Strong

Sonnets of the Empire: Australia 1914

The Night is thick with storm and driving cloud, 
Lurid at instants through the blackness break 
Quick gleams of war across the perilous lake 
From yonder isles that awe and magic shroud: 
Far in the northland smite Thor?s hammers loud 
On steel that warlocks for her spoilure make, 
Till lo! from sleep Australia starts awake 
And lifts the queenly head that sloth had bowed. 

Not yet her eyes are clear: throughout her brain 
Still swarm the antic creatures of her dream, 
The idiot jests, the sports that kill the soul, 
Yet shall not night lay hold on her again, 
For through the rack she spies the morning gleam 
Clear on the sword that lights her to her goal.