LESSON 22 NORTH-EAST BY NORTH

NORTH-EAST BY NORTH

All Australians who live "in the country" know the black swans, and Charles Souter, an Australian poet, has written this poem to them.

NORTH-EAST by north, in an inky ［1］ sky,

Five hundred feet o'erhead,

With stately stroke of wing they fly

To the land where they were bred.

The scent of the far-off billabong ［2］

And the gleam of the lignum ［3］ brake ［4］

Come to them as they swing along

Led by the old gray drake.

With flash of pearly underwing

And swish of rushing wind,

The reeling miles astern they fling

And leave the sea behind.

For well they know the summer's past

And there is a sense of pain,

And winter has returned at last!

The swamps are full again!

So two by two, in echelon ［5］ ,

With the old gray drake ahead,

All through the night they swing along

Until the east is red;

North-east by north, on tireless wing,

All through the glaring day—

And as they go, a chorus sing,

To cheer them on their way.

And as I lie awake at night

Upon my restless bed,

And hear the black swans in their flight

Five hundred feet o'erhead,

And listen to the old gray drake

Calling his cohort ［6］ forth,

I would be flying in his wake ［7］ ,

North-east by north, half north!

—CHARLES H. SOUTER

* * *

［1 ］ inky: Dark, black.

［2 ］ billabong: A kind of pond or water hole.

［3 ］ lignum: Tree having a hard wood.

［4 ］ brake: Clump of trees or bushes.

［5 ］ echelon: In the form of an arrow head.

［6 ］ cohort: Company of soldiers.

［7 ］ wake: Track.