| Walter Murdoch (1874–1970). The Oxford Book of Australasian Verse. 1918. |
| |
| 111. Rhapsody |
| | | By Arthur Maquarie |
| |
| |
| LOVERS, are you faring forth? | |
| Will you seek the icy north? | |
| Are you steering by the sun? | |
| Where you journey there is none | |
| But a frozen viking’s targe | 5 |
| Resting idly on the marge. | |
| |
| Lovers, do you make your way | |
| To a land of larger day? | |
| Do you track the homing flight | |
| Of the birds that seek the light? | 10 |
| They will lead you to your death | |
| In the desert’s scorching breath. | |
| |
| North or east or south or west, | |
| Lovers, you will lose your quest, | |
| For the prize of your demand | 15 |
| Yields not to the hunter’s hand; | |
| He who searches love or truth | |
| Leaves them hid behind his youth. | |
| |
|
|
|
