Vonda Stanley's collection of early Australian bush poems

                                                    

GIRL-GLADNESS

It’s holiday time on the hollyhock hills,

And I wish you would come with me laddie-love, now,

The butterfly-bells, from the Folly-fool rills,

Will ring if you listen, and drop on your brow.

So, dear come along,

I’ve a kiss and a song,

And I know where the fairies are forging a gong

To ring up the elves to a festival fair

Of snippets of sunshine and apples of air.

O laddie, my laddie, quick, run out of school,

And away with a shout and a shake of the head;

I’ll pick you a pearl from the pigeon-pink pool

Where cuddles and kisses are going to bed,

Away, come away To the lands of the fay,

For the afternoon tinkles your lassie-love’s lay.

Play truant with Time, and while Age is asleep

I’ll give you the heart of my girlhood to keep.

Zora Cross.

 

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