Leaves from Australian Forests (1869). Ellen Ray
A quiet song for Ellen— The patient Ellen Ray, A dreamer in the nightfall, A watcher in the day. The wedded of the sailor Who keeps so far away: A shadow on his forehead For patient Ellen Ray. When autumn winds were driving Across the chafing bay, He said the words of anger That wasted Ellen Ray: He said the words of anger And went his bitter way: Her dower was the darkness— The patient Ellen Ray. Your comfort is a phantom, My patient Ellen Ray; You house it in the night-time, It fronts you in the day; And when the moon is very low And when the lights are grey, You sit and hug a sorry hope, My patient Ellen Ray! You sit and hug a sorry hope— Yet who will dare to say, The sweetness of October Is not for Ellen Ray? The bearer of a burden Must rest at fall of day; And you have borne a heavy one, My patient Ellen Ray.
Henry Kendall’s other poems:
