Page:Backblock Ballads and Later Verses (C.J. Dennis, 1918).djvu/95

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A SONG OF RAIN
87



Because some strange, cyclonic thing has happened—God knows where—
Men dream again of easy days, of cash to spend and spare.
The ring fair Clara coveted, Belinda's furs are nigh,
As clerklings watch their increments fall shining from the sky.
 
                 Rolls the thunder at Eudunda;
                 Leongatha, Boort, Kapunda
                 Send a joyous message down;
                 Sorrows, flooded, sink and drown.
                 Ninkerloo and Nerim South
                 Hail the breaking of the drouth;
                 From Toolangi's wooded mountains
                 Sounds the song of plashing fountains;
                 Sovereign Summer's might is waning;
                 It is raining—raining—raining!

Because the breeze blew sou'-by-east across the China Sea ;
Or else, because the thing was willed through all eternity
By gods that rule the rushing stars, or gods long æons dead,
The earth is made to smile again, and living things are fed.

                 Mile on mile from Mallacoota
                 Runs the news, and far Baroota
                 Speeds it over hill and plain,
                 Till the slogan of the rain
                 Rolls afar to Yankalilla;
                 Wallaroo and Wirrawilla