A Ballade Of Wattle Blossom Poem by Robert Richardson

There's a land that is happy and fair,
   Set gem-like in halcyon seas;
The white winters visit not there,
   To sadden its blossoming leas,
   More bland than the Hesperides,
Or any warm isle of the West,
   Where the wattle-bloom perfumes the breeze,
And the bell-bird builds her nest.

When the oak and the elm are bare,
   And wild winds vex the shuddering trees;
There the clematis whitens the air,
   And the husbandman laughs as he sees
   The grass rippling green to his knees,
And his vineyards in emerald drest --
   Where the wattle-bloom bends in the breeze,
And the bell-bird builds her nest.

What land is with this to compare?
   Not the green hills of Hybla, with bees
Honey-sweet, are more radiant and rare
   In colour and fragrance than these
   Boon shores, where the storm-clouds cease,
And the wind and the wave are at rest --
   Where the wattle-bloom waves in the breeze,
And the bell-bird builds her nest.

Envoy.

Sweetheart, let them praise as they please
   Other lands, but we know which is best --
Where the wattle-bloom perfumes the breeze,
   And the bell-bird builds her nest.