Lake Eliza - Poet's Trek

[manfredvijars]

Lake Eliza
Henry Lawson, 1893

The sand was heavy on our feet,
.....A Christmas sky was o'er us,
And half a mile through dust and heat
.....Lake 'Liza lay before us.
'You'll have a long and heavy tramp' —
.....So said the last adviser —
'You can't do better than to camp
.....To-night at Lake Eliza.'

We quite forgot our aching shanks,
.....A cheerful spirit caught us;
We thought of green and shady banks,
.....We thought of pleasant waters.
'Neath sky as niggard of its rain
.....As of his gold the miser,
By mulga scrub and lignum plain
.....We'd tramp'd to Lake Eliza.

A patch to grey discoloured sand,
.....A fringe of tufty grasses,
A lonely pub in mulga scrub
.....Is all the stranger passes.
He'd pass the Lake a dozen times
.....And yet be none the wiser;
I hope that I shall never be
.....As dry as Lake Eliza.

No patch of green or water seen
.....To cheer the weary plodder;
The grass is tough as fencing-wire,
.....And just as good for fodder.
And when I see it mentioned in
.....Some local Advertiser,
'twill make me laugh, or make me grin —
.....The name of 'Lake Eliza'.
---

[Maureen K Clifford]

Love it Mannie - a great poem and a daunting description. Somehow think Eliza and I are destined not to meet Love the colours in the piccie.

[Bob Pacey]

A great write Manfred, We took a bus up to Kitchant lake north of Mackay to play golf a few years back and it was the same no water and cows wandering on the flats LOL


We called Kitchant No Lakes. I think i worte a poem for the golf club but cannot find it now.


Cheers Mate a good one.


Bob

Ps thanks for the facebook link.

[Heather]

I hadn't read that poem before Manny. Thanks for posting it. It made me smile.

Great piccie too. Looks like it's raining in the distance.

Heather