THE WILDERNESS. (By S.B.S.) Poem. 1911.

The Grenfell Record and Lachlan District Advertiser. NSW : 22 July 1911

1911 THE WILDERNESS.
(By S.B.S.)

One came with weary brow and feet
From greed and turmoil and distress,
From giant brain and shrunken soul,
Into the quiet wilderness.

The evening and the morning light
Lay fair upon the singing stream,
And shadows of the moving vine
Played with the noonday's brighter beam.

From gaudy bed the dying sun,
Embosomed in a scarlet shroud,
Unloosed a veil of purple hue
And flung it o'er the crimson cloud.

Then came upon, the darkening wood
The edges of a silver light.
And flowery meadows of the moon,
Deep-set with daisies of the night.

The wanderer with the tired brow
Lay watching where the shadows creep
The moving shadows; and they came,
Soft-stepping to the land of sleep.

He slept whose city couch had known
The penalty and awful fee
Of beaten brain that would unbar
The secrets of Eternity

Slept still upon the dewy stone
When sank the moonlight, and afar,
Rose on the gloomy line of hills
The mystery of the morning star.

Slept till the twittering of the birds
Grew loud upon the jewelled tree;
Slept on until his tired soul
Came to a sweeter sanity.

That he whose wandering feet had come
From greed and turmoil and distress,
Might here upon the quiet noon
Find wisdom in the wilderness;

Might know upon the mellow breeze;
The touch of angels, and the gloom
Fragrant of Eden, and the smoke,
Of incense in its wild perfume.

And to his freer soul there came,
Unstifled by the clang of men
A sound upon the solitude
That spake of Paradise again.

Some whisper of the wind or tree,
Or fall of dew upon the sod;
Some echo of Eternity—
Be still and know that I am God.