[Editor: This poem by Agnes L. Storrie was published in Poems, 1909.]
Might is Right.
There ran a whisper through the nodding grass —
“Along this upland she will surely pass,”
There rose a murmur in the sheoak glade —
“Beneath us she may haply pause for shade,”
And sweet epacris blushed a lovelier red,
“Perhaps she’ll stoop and gather me,” it said,
But one warm zephyr from the ardent south
Said boldly — “I shall kiss her on the mouth.”
But I, alas! no happy grass am I
To feel her footstep as she passes by,
No tree to shield her, no sweet woodland flower
To lie upon her bosom for an hour.
Then must I like the breeze grow bold and take
Her heart itself, and might my right shall make.
Agnes L. Storrie. Poems, J. W. Kettlewell, Sydney, 1909, pages 101-102
epacris = a genus of plants (of the family Epacridaceae), native to Australia (and elsewhere in Oceania), which have purple, red, or white blossoms
haply = by accident, by chance, or by luck
sheoaks = flowering shrubs and trees of the family Casuarinaceae; sheoaks (or she-oaks) are also known as casuarinas (“she-oak” was coined by combining “she”, a prefix used to indicate an inferior sense of timber, with “oak”, regarding an inferior comparison with English oak trees) [See: “She Oak, or Casuarina”, The Western Mail (Perth, WA), Friday 10 July 1914, page 4]
zephyr = a breeze from the west, especially a gentle breeze (from Zephyrus, or Zephyr, god of the west wind in Greek mythology)
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