Port Phillip Heads. Ebb Tide. Clipper Ship Lightning & Pilot vessel
engraving held by State
Library of Victoria (c)
Transcribed by Lyn Nunn Aug 2005 from The Examiner, 'Original and Select Poetry', January 25, 1856 n.p. Kilmore Victoria Australia
ON FIRST ENTERING PORT PHILIP
HEADS
Bright and clear the sun-beam's shine
Upon you lovely land,
Like a floating gem on an azure sea
Lies the fair Australian strand!
We have roamed a long and weary way
O'er oceans trackless path;
And felt the might of the billows foam,
And the tempest in its wrath.
And now you beauteous land appears
Before our wave worn barque;
As welcome as the white winged dove
To the dwellers of the Ark.
Wondrous tales are told to us
Of the wealth of the golden streams,
But oh! the land looks beautiful!
Be they false as fairy dreams!
Its skies to us seem sapphire blue,
Its grass as emerald green,
And radiant as the diamond flash
Its crystal waters sheen;
And tho' we have left our childhood's stars,
And the homes of those we love;
Earth's fairest forms around us smile,
And the southern cross above.
Emily E. B.(c)
Kilmore, January 1856.
