Spring Song of Sydney

by Dorothea Mackellar (1885-1968)

Spring has come back to this Sydney of ours;
All the deep gardens brim over with flowers;
All the steep gardens climb down to the harbour
Frothing with blossoms on trellis and arbour.

Clematis, jasmine, wisteria, rose,
Who can keep tale for the pageant that goes,
Scented and hued like the suite of a bride,
Toward the delphinium-blue of the tide?

Hark to the magpie, and in the hush,
Now the sun's riding high listen, a thrush!
Soon, soon the locust will silence their song,
Spring is swift-footed, but Summer broods long.