"Bellbirds" is one of Australia's best loved poems, and almost every Australian
has at one time or another heard or repeated its melodic phrases,
so evocative of the cool, dim blue and green of the Australian mountain
country. This poem was first published in a work entitled "Leaves from
Australian Forests" by Henry Kendall in the year of 1869.

 

Bellbirds

 

By Henry Kendall

By channels of coolness the echoes are calling,
And down the dim gorges I hear the creek falling:
It lives in the mountain where moss and the sedges
Touch with their beauty the banks and the ledges.
Through breaks of the cedar and sycamore bowers
Struggles the light that is love to the flowers;
And, softer than slumber, and sweeter than singing,
The notes of the bell-birds are running and ringing.
The silver-voiced bell birds, the darlings of daytime!
They sing in September their songs of the May-time;
When shadows wax strong, and the thunder bolts hurtle,
They hide with their fear in the leaves of the myrtle;
When rain and the sunbeams shine mingled together,
They start up like fairies that follow fair weather;
And straightway the hues of their feathers unfolden
Are the green and the purple, the blue and the golden.

October, the maiden of bright yellow tresses,
Loiters for love in these cool wildernesses;
Loiters, knee-deep, in the grasses, to listen,
Where dripping rocks gleam and the leafy pools glisten:
Then is the time when the water-moons splendid
Break with their gold, and are scattered or blended
Over the creeks, till the woodlands have warning
Of songs of the bell-bird and wings of the Morning.

Welcome as waters unkissed by the summers
Are the voices of bell-birds to the thirsty far-comers.
When fiery December sets foot in the forest,
And the need of the wayfarer presses the sorest,
Pent in the ridges for ever and ever
The bell-birds direct him to spring and to river,
With ring and with ripple, like runnels who torrents
Are toned by the pebbles and the leaves in the currents.

Often I sit, looking back to a childhood,
Mixt with the sights and the sounds of the wildwood,
Longing for power and the sweetness to fashion,
Lyrics with beats like the heart-beats of Passion; -
Songs interwoven of lights and of laughters
Borrowed from bell-birds in far forest-rafters;
So I might keep in the city and alleys
The beauty and strength of the deep mountain valleys:
Charming to slumber the pain of my losses
With glimpses of creeks and a vision of mosses.

 

Henry Kendall was born at Kirmington near Ulladulla in the state of NSW
(New South Wales) on April 18th, 1839. He was married in 1868 and moved to
Melbourne, they had 7 children. Kendall and his family eventually moved back
to NSW, he had his share of ups and downs in the years to follow not only
with his career but also with his health. Kendall passed away August 1st 1882
he was only 43 years old.

The bellbird itself is a very small greyish bird. Its call or melody is
simply one singular chiming note which seems to ring through their
environmental habitat - the mountains and their foothills of Eastern
Australia. They may be heard clearly in the quietness of the mountains
and hills, although are rarely seen, unless an attitude of patience is
adopted.

The Australian mountains are concentrated in a reasonable narrow band
known as the "Great Dividing Range" which runs from the tip of Cape York
in the north, down the eastern coast - over 3000 kms - through the Snowys
and all the way to the Dandenongs in Victoria, and no doubt the same
range extends under the Bass Straight and down into the wilderness areas
of Tasmania.

 

 

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Kezzakat Kreations 2007