Explore "The Wind's Message" by Andrew Barton Paterson on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
There came a whisper down the Bland between the dawn and dark, / Above the tossing of the pines, above the river's flow; / It stirred the boughs of giant gums and stalwart ironbark; / It drifted where the wild ducks played amid the swamps below; / It brought a breath of mountain air from off the hills of pine, / A scent of eucalyptus trees in honey-laden bloom; / And drifting, drifting far away along the southern line / It caught from leaf and grass and fern a subtle strange perfume.
It reached the toiling city folk, but few there were that heard -- / The rattle of their busy life had choked the whisper down; / And some but caught a fresh-blown breeze with scent of pine that stirred / A thought of blue hills far away beyond the smoky town; / And others heard the whisper pass, but could not understand / The magic of the breeze's breath that set their hearts aglow, / Nor how the roving wind could bring across the Overland / A sound of voices silent now and songs of long ago.