Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Walter Murdoch (1874–1970). The Oxford Book of Australasian Verse. 1918.

By Louis Esson

174 . Caprice

(A Summer’s Day, Sydney Harbour)

BLUE and gold, and mist and sunlight,

Veils of colour blent and blown

In melodic monotone.

Dark and bright, and white and dun light

Clash and flash, as into one light

Trembling thro’ an opal stone,

Over green robes of the mountain

And the blue skirts of the sea,

Spreading from a sacred fountain

Hymeneal harmony.

Drums and trumpets of the ocean,

Oboe spirits of the wind,

Violins of forest kind,

Flutes that breathe the trees’ devotion,

Blending, hymn the joyous motion

Of the universal mind,

When, with chariot cavorting,

And a storm of symphonies,

Horses snorting, banners sporting,

Ocean Seas wed Harbour Seas.

Salt of waves, and scent of roses,

Seaweed strown along the sand,

Blossoms blown from high head-land,

As the Ocean-Lord reposes

Where the Harbour dreams and dozes,

Sultan and Sultana bland,

Rocky shrubs, earth, fragrant grasses

Spiced with sand and sea and sun,

As the gay procession passes,

Know that all things are but one.

At the sun a wave laughs, leaping

Thro’ intoxicating air

Like a child with tossing hair.

But a sea-gull, vigil keeping

Flutters, musically sweeping,

Delicate and debonair,

Where the wave leaps, lightly wheeling,

Like a flash of amethyst

Clasps the wave, then leaves her, stealing

Kisses by the sunshine kissed.

Bird that brilliant pinion flies on

Thro’ the azure atmosphere

Pipes a duet, sweet and clear,

With the wind the sunlight lies on;

Sea weds Sky on dim horizon,

And the distant joins the near.

Wave and cloud, and fish and swallow,

Swaying tree and flying bird

Music maddened, flee and follow

Till pale mortals, too, are stirred.

Over all things Love stands warder.

Cloud seeks wave, while close behind

Cloud is followed by the wind.

Dionysean disorder

Laughs, and leaps o’er bar and border,

Breaks the shackles of the mind;

And in wine-enchanted weather

Culls, that life and joy be one,

Grapes to mix all things together

From the Garden of the Sun.

Nature takes delight in shedding

Love that joins with benison

All the elements in one;

And to-day the feast is spreading

Till her creatures all are wedding,

And of sorrow there is none…

So the Summer Day rehearses

Bridal lyrics mad to sing

As a viol or a verse is,

Of the joy of everything.