| Walter Murdoch (1874–1970). The Oxford Book of Australasian Verse. 1918. |
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| 142. After the Storm |
| | | By Louis Lavater |
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| AS children vex a lion in his cage | |
| Themselves secure, the doorway barred and locked, | |
| So, Ocean! have I railed at thee, have mocked | |
| With gibe and jeer thine ineffectual rage. | |
| Ah, I was wrong! All those in every age | 5 |
| Who, weeping, at their prison-bars have knocked | |
| I heard again when this huge bastion rocked | |
| Before thee; and I learned their parentage. | |
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| And now thou’rt spent. No more a giant’s hand | |
| Buffets the sounding rocks, but piteously | 10 |
| Thou rangest the low shore with feeble fret. | |
| O God, it wellnigh breaks my heart to see | |
| Those foamy fingers plucking at the strand | |
| Like a sick woman’s at her coverlet! | |
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