Sonnets on the Discovery of Botany Bay by Captain Cook - I - The First Attempt to Reach the Shore

Where is the painter who shall paint for you,
My Austral brothers, with a pencil steeped
In hues of Truth, the weather-smitten crew
Who gazed on unknown shores a thoughtful few
What time the heart of their great Leader leaped
Till he was faint with pain of longing? New
And wondrous sights on each and every hand,
Like strange supernal visions, grew and grew
Until the rocks and trees, and sea and sand,
Danced madly in the tear-bewildered view!
And from the surf a fierce, fantastic band
Of startled wild men to the hills withdrew
With yells of fear! Wholl paint thy face, O Cook!
Turned seaward, after many a wistful look!

Henry Kendall

Henry Kendall was an Australian poet born on April 18, 1839, known for his lyrical and descriptive poetry reflecting the natural world and the colonial experience of Australia. He faced personal and financial difficulties throughout his life, which deeply influenced his works. His poetry collections include 'Leaves from Australian Forests' and 'Songs from the Mountains'. Kendall passed away on August 1, 1882, leaving a lasting impact on Australian literature.

Henry Kendall

Laura

Henry Kendall, Simple Poetry

In Hyde Park

Henry Kendall, Simple Poetry

Outre Mer

Henry Kendall, Simple Poetry

The Helmsman

Henry Kendall, Simple Poetry

English

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Sonnets on the Discovery of Botany Bay by Captain Cook - III - The Spot Where Cook Landed

Chaotic crags are huddled east and west
Dark, heavy crags, against a straitened sea
That cometh, like a troubled soul in quest
Of voiceless rest where never dwelleth rest,
With noise like thunder everlasting.
But here, behold a silent space of sand!
Oh, pilgrim, halt! it even seems to be
Asleep in other years. How still! How grand!
How awful in its wild solemnity!
This is the spot on which the Chief did land,
And there, perchance, he stood what time a band
Of yelling strangers scoured the savage lea.
Dear friend, with thoughtful eyes look slowly round
By all the sacred Past tis sacred ground.

Henry Kendall

Sonnets on the Discovery of Botany Bay by Captain Cook - II - The Second Attempt, Opposed by Two of the Natives

There were but two, and we were forty! Yet,
The Captain wrote, that dauntless couple throve,
And faced our wildering faces; and I said
Lie to awhile! I did not choose to let
A strife go on of little worth to us.
And so unequal! But the dying tread
Of flying kinsmen moved them not: for wet
With surf and wild with streaks of white and black
The pair remained.    O stout Caractacus!
Twas thus you stood when Caesars legions strove
To beat their few, fantastic foemen back
Your patriots with their savage stripes of red!
To drench the stormy cliff and moaning cove
With faithful blood, as pure as any ever shed.

Henry Kendall

Sonnets on the Discovery of Botany Bay by Captain Cook - IV - Sutherlands Grave

Tis holy ground! The silent silver lights
And darks undreamed of, falling year by year
Upon his sleep, in soft Australian nights,
Are joys enough for him who lieth here
So sanctified with Rest. We need not rear
The storied monument oer such a spot!
That soul, the first for whom the Christian tear
Was shed on Austral soil, hath heritage
Most ample! Let the ages wane with age,
The grass which clothes this grave shall wither not.
See yonder quiet lily! Have the blights
Of many winters left it on a faded tomb?
Oh, peace! Its fellows, glad with green delights,
Shall gather round it deep eternal bloom!

Henry Kendall

To My Brother, Basil E. Kendall

To-night the sea sends up a gulf-like sound,
And ancient rhymes are ringing in my head,
The many lilts of song we sang and said,
My friend and brother, when we journeyed round
Our haunts at Wollongong, that classic ground
For me at least, a lingerer deeply read
And steeped in beauty. Oft in trance I tread
Those shining shores, and hear your talk of Fame
With thought-flushed face and heart so well assured
(Beholding through the woodlands bright distress
The Moon half pillaged of her loveliness)
Of this wild dreamer: Had you but endured
A dubious dark, you might have won a name
With brighter bays than I can ever claim.

Henry Kendall

The Australian Emigrant

How dazzling the sunbeams awoke on the spray,
When Australia first rose in the distance away,
As welcome to us on the deck of the bark,
As the dove to the vision of those in the ark!
What fairylike fancies appeard to the view
As nearer and nearer the haven we drew!
What castles were built and rebuilt in the brain,
To totter and crumble to nothing again!

We had roamd oer the ocean had traversd a path,
Where the tempest surrounded and shriekd in its wrath:
Alike we had rolld in the hurricanes breath,
And slumberd on waters as silent as death:
We had watchd the Day breaking each morn on the main,
And had seen it sink down in the billows again;
For week after week, till disheartend we thought
An age would elapse ere we enterd the port.

How o...

Henry Kendall

The Spirit Of Discovery By Sea: A Descriptive And Historical Poem. - Introduction.[1]

I need not perhaps inform the reader, that I had before written a Canto on the subject of this poem; but I was dissatisfied with the metre, and felt the necessity of some connecting idea that might give it a degree of unity and coherence.

This difficulty I considered as almost inseparable from the subject; I therefore relinquished the design of making an extended poem on events, which, though highly interesting and poetical, were too unconnected with each other to unite properly in one regular whole. But on being kindly permitted to peruse the sheets of Mr Clarke's valuable work on the History of Navigation, I conceived (without supposing historically with him that all ideas of navigation were derived from the ark of Noah) that I might adopt the circumstance poetically, as capable of furnishing an unity of ...

William Lisle Bowles