Clari
Clari
Original Text
The Poems of Henry Kendall, ed. Bertram Stephens
(Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1920): 33. Sydney Electronic Text and Image Service (SETIS), digital text sponsored by AustLit: http://setis.library.usyd.edu.au/ozlit
1Too cold, O my brother, too cold for my wife
2 Is the Beauty you showed me this morning:
3Nor yet have I found the sweet dream of my life,
4 And good-bye to the sneering and scorning.
5Would you have me cast down in the dark of her frown,
6 Like others who bend at her shrine;
7And would barter their souls for a statue-like face,
8 And a heart that can never be mine?
9 That can never be theirs nor mine.
10Go after her, look at her, kneel at her feet,
11 And mimic the lover romantic;
12I have hated deceit, and she misses the treat
13 Of driving me hopelessly frantic!
14Now watch her, as deep in her carriage she lies,
15 And love her, my friend, if you dare!
16She would wither your life with her beautiful eyes,
17 And strangle your soul with her hair!
18 With a mesh of her splendid hair.
Publication Start Year
1862
Publication Notes
Poems and Songs, ed. Bertram Stephens
(Sydney: J. R. Clarke, 1862)
RPO poem Editors
Cameron La Follette
RPO Edition
2011
Rhyme
Form