The land I came thro' last was dumb with night
The land I came thro' last was dumb with night
Original Text
The Verse of Christopher Brennan, ed. A. R. Chisholm and J. J. Quinn (Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1960): 165. PR 6003 R352A17 Robarts Library
1The land I came thro' last was dumb with night,
2a limbo of defeated glory, a ghost:
3for wreck of constellations flicker'd perishing
4scarce sustain'd in the mortuary air,
5and on the ground and out of livid pools
6wreck of old swords and crowns glimmer'd at whiles;
7I seem'd at home in some old dream of kingship:
8now it is clear grey day and the road is plain,
9I am the wanderer of many years
10who cannot tell if ever he was king
11or if ever kingdoms were: I know I am
12the wanderer of the ways of all the worlds,
13to whom the sunshine and the rain are one
14and one to stay or hasten, because he knows
15no ending of the way, no home, no goal,
16and phantom night and the grey day alike
17withhold the heart where all my dreams and days
18might faint in soft fire and delicious death:
19and saying this to myself as a simple thing
20I feel a peace fall in the heart of the winds
21and a clear dusk settle, somewhere, far in me.
Publication Start Year
1914
Publication Notes
Poems 1913 (1914). See Australian Poets eTexts Project, The Sydney Electronic Text and Image Service (SETIS)
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire; Cameron La Follette
RPO Edition
2011
Form