Poem by Henry Kendall

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.

1. Early Poems (1859-70). In Memoriam—Nicol Drysdale Stenhouse
2. Other Poems (1871-82). How the Melbourne Cup was Won
3. Early Poems (1859-70). Cui Bono?
4. Other Poems (1871-82). Aboriginal Death-Song
5. Other Poems (1871-82). Sydney Exhibition Cantata

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