AUSTRALIAN LITERATURE. 817 



passages that would give the least hintof grandeur of thought 

 or elegance of style ; the whole is eouiinonplace, and yet it 

 is of that gossipy kind of commonplace which everybody is 

 incHned to read, without very well knowing why. 



Only a year or two after his arrival in the colony Dr. Lang 

 printed in Sydney a small volume of poems, mostly composed 

 on the voyage out. This slender little book of about 100 

 pages, and called "Aurora Australis," is notable in our history 

 as the first piece of genuine literature, however humble, that 

 had been actually printed on these shores. There had been 

 printing for many years before, but never a book that had 

 any pretensions to literary taste. It is true that nine years 

 previously, Mr. Barron Field, one of the two Judges of the 

 Supreme Court, had published a volume of verse which he 

 called " Botany Bay Flowers," but they are too ridiculous to be 

 regarded in a serious light. Aurora Australis, the first 

 volume of verses that Dr. Lang published, has pages here 

 and there which may reasonably enough be ranked as 

 poetry. 



But there is distinctly better work in a volume which he 

 published in 1873, in Melbourne, under the title of " Poems, 

 Sacred and Secular." The verses it contains were written in 

 the first instance for Sydney journals, between 1820 and 

 1830. The j'oem in ottava rima, entitled "A Voyage to 

 New South Wales," contains fine lines in places. One 

 pleasing passage, descriptive of the scenery, the author saw 

 as his vessel neared Hobart, has been inserted by Longfellow 

 in the collection he calls " Poems of Places." The following 

 are three stanzas from his description of D'Entrecasteaux 

 Channel as it was in 1 820 : — 



'Tis a most beauteous Strait. The Great South Sea's 



Proud waves keep holiday along its shore, 

 And as the vessel glides before the breeze, 



Broad bays and isles appear, and steep cliffs hoar^ 

 With groves on either hand of ancient trees 



Planted by Nature in the days of yore : 

 Van Diemen's on the left and Bruni's Isle 

 Forming the starbord shore for many a mile. 



But all is still as death. Nor voice of man 

 Is heard, nor forest warbler's tuneful song. 



It seems as if this beauteous world began 



To be but yesterday, and the earth still young 



And unpossessed. For though the tall black swan 

 Sits on her nest and stately sails along, 



And the green wild doves their fleet pinions ply, 



And the grey eagle tenants the azure sky. 



