ORIGINAL POETRY.

Cromwell Argus, Volume 2, Issue 85, 27 June 1871, Page 6

ORIGINAL POETRY.

—o — THE MAIDENS OF THE SUNNY SOUTH. "The Maids of Merry England " are beautiful, all say: And shall their sisters of the South not wake the minstrel lay ? For they are also lovely girls, and each bewitching form Smiles joyful on ber southron swain, bis manly soul to charm. The maidens of the sunny South, Australia's peerless prize : ■ Whose hearts are pure, yet warmly bright as her cerulean skies ; Whose love is sterling as her gold, whose charms like her Spring day : The maidens of the sunny Soutb, oh, beautiful are they ! ; The maidens of the sunny South, oh, beautiful ! are they ! The maidens of the sunny South, dear winsome lasses all: Whose love-lit eyes, black, blue, or grey, enchant us and enthrall ; Wit flashes from their sparkling depths ; or truthfully they shine, With clearer ray than evening star, or gem of Indian mine. Blonde or brunette, petite or tall, from Tasman's isle, or where Imperial Sydney's orange groves perfume the golden air, jOr fair Victoria's vernal valc3, —as queens of hearts they sway, These daughters of the sunny South, so beautiful are they : The maidens of the sunny South, ah, beautiful are they! , New Zealand's isles, so rudely grand, whose massive mountains rear ! Their snow-capped domes to starry spheres, may proudly claim to share, With equal right, the miustrel thetne for their loved daughters too, | That bloom, like opening roses, in the summer's balmy dew. ! Graceful as the rare ferns that grow within their native glades, And lithesome as the pendent vine 3 that drape their cool green shades These damsels are, and as their streams, from snowy source conveyed, | Unsullied, gleeful, glides the life, of each New Zealand maid : Glides freshly as the brook, the life of each New Zealand maid. Still on this sisterhood of song may happiness descend, And may no pallid woe-tints with their rosy blushes blend ; May Heaven with kind and loving hand their innocence preserve, So shall their suitors nobly strive those dear ones to deserve. Guiding their course by Virtue's chart, not heeding Vice ahead : Thus, o'er our sunny southern lands, shall bliss be broadly spread, And carking care, and want, and crime shall banished he for aye, By maidens of these southern climes, for good and true arc they ; By beauteous daughters of the South, so good, so true are they. Cromwell. J. M. I