24 July 2008

Gosford by Moonlight

To coincide with the opening of the exhibition at the Gosford Regional Gallery at full moon last Friday, titled "A Sense of Place", we present a poem from The Gosford Times.

5th May, 1899

Gosford by Moonlight
(For The “Times”)

I stood on the range o’or Gosford,
At the lonely midnight hour,
When the moon at the full was shining
With a wondrous golden power.

I gazed on a fairy scene below
That spread upon either hand,
The golden moonlit water,
The shadowy, dreamy land.

And Gosford lay in her cradle there
In robes of shimmering gold,
Slumbering like a fairy child
Embraced in a fairy fold.

And all was still save a distant hum
That sailed in the calm repose;
T’was the solemn moan of the restless sea,
That up to the ranges rose.

My God! What a cry, like a banshee’s wail,
From that lone bird as it flew,
Wailing all round that ghostly cry
Curlew! Curlew! Curlew!

O my soul drank deep of the magic there
As I gazed on each moonlit bay,
And my tongue burst forth in rapture loud
As I turned to move away.

Oh! for a soul, a burning soul
I cried as I gazed all round,
To paint on a canvas glorious
The picture that there I found.

Cean O’C

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