The Aurora Australis

A radiance in the midnight sky     No white moon gave, nor yellow star;     We thought its red glow mounted high     Where fire and forest fought afar,     Half questioning if the township blazed,     Perchance, beyond the boundary hill;     Then, finding what it was, we gazed     And wondered till we shivered chill.     And Fancy showed the sister-glow     Of our Aurora, sending lines     Of lustre forth to tint the snow     That lodges in Norwegian pines.     And South and North alternate swept     In vision past us, to and fro;     While stealthy winds of midnight crept     About us, whispering fast and low.     The North, whose star burns steadily,     High set in heaven long ago:     The South, new-risen on the sea,     A tremulous horizon-glow.     We mused, Shall there be gallant guests     Within our polar hermitage,     As on the shore where Franklin rests,     And others, named in Glorys page?     And, Shall the light we look on blaze     Above such battles as have been,     In other countries, other days,     The giants and the gods between?     Till one declared, We live to-night     In what shall be the poets world:     The lands neath our Auroras light     Are as the rocks the Titans hurled.     From southern waters, ice-enthralled,     Year after year the rays that glance     Shall see the Desert shrink appalled     Before the Citys swift advance.     Shall see the precipice a stair,     The river as a road. And then     There shall be voices to declare     This work was wrought by manly men.     And so our South all stately swept     In vision past us, to and fro;     While stealthy winds of midnight crept     About us, whispering fast and low.