Because Australia is in the southern hemisphere, springtime is from September through November. Is there a better way to enjoy a spring day other than to go for a walk in the park? The city of Melbourne, Australia, has wonderful gardens to visit, and thankfully, a great, public, modern, trolley-like, light rail system to get you within walking distance to any of them. Like Sydney, its neighbor 545 miles to the northeast, Melbourne has a fantastic Royal Botanic Garden.
Built in the middle of the city, modern architectural skyscrapers, (more on this in a near-future post,) frame the Garden. Yet, there is a feeling of beauty and calmness as one strolls the well-kept and diverse plant collections, statues, memorials, (i.e., The Shrine of Remebrance,) and historical buildings, (i.e., La Trobe’s Cottage.) I felt neither crowded nor overwhelmed by the size and accessibility of the park, and when I wanted to get indoors, museums and downtown shopping were nearby.
If all Australian cities have a Royal Botanic Garden like this, I cannot wait to see more of this continent!
NOTES ON THE LYRICS
Song: “7. The Lurker In the House” from The Boarding House Mysteries
Poetic form: Rime Coue’e (French, sextet)
Lyrics
Lurking main and rear stair cases1
Complacent types in these places
Darkness smothers sick walls
Cries the mysterious lady
One of them paves way to Hades
Scuffled sounds through the halls2
1. 3, 4 Thick shadows overwhelm light’s strength
2. Me, is not me, in the hall’s length
3. I creep in sight unseen
4. Animal wakes and tries to fly
5. On the floor, it flutters and dies
6. What did eyes and hands mean?????
Footnotes
1. The poem consists of one or more stanzas.
2. Every stanza has six lines with the rhyming pattern of aabccb.
3. Lines 1, 2, 4 and 5 have eight syllables each.
4. Lines 3 and 6 have six syllables each.