Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Walter Murdoch (1874–1970). The Oxford Book of Australasian Verse. 1918.

96. Inheritance

AS flow the rivers to the sea

Adown from rocky hill or plain,

A thousand ages toiled for thee

And gave thee harvest of their gain;

And weary myriads of yore

Dug out for thee earth’s buried ore.

The shadowy toilers for thee fought

In chaos of primeval day

Blind battles with they knew not what;

And each before he passed away

Gave clear articulate cries of woe:

Your pain is theirs of long ago.

And all the old heart sweetness sung,

The joyous life of man and maid

In forests when the earth was young,

In rumours round your childhood strayed:

The careless sweetness of your mind

Comes from the buried years behind.

And not alone unto your birth

Their gifts the weeping ages bore,

The old descents of God on earth

Have dowered thee with celestial lore:

So, wise, and filled with sad and gay

You pass unto the further day.