Page 8 - Memorial Book Thilaga Mylvaganam
P. 8
This is an example of our mother’s venturesome spirit, the year after she
arrived in Australia with us, when she applied her knowledge of English to
mastering the art of poetry:
A Lament
O what has befallen our noble Isle
That once was’t the Pearl of the Orient?
Where men of strange lands plied their trade
Its palm fringed shores that once did’st beckon
To travellers – to feast their eyes
On cloud capped domes and solemn temples
To tread on forest glades, where elephants roamed
And gaze at verdant hills in tea bushes clothed
And the rice fields where buffaloes wallowed.
This lovely isle now defaced with scars of mutiny
Her ministers graft, with tales of infamy
Who did’st consort with the citizens
And by their vehement instigation
Turned upon a hapless race.
Base men that used them so to base effect
Else wherefore breathe I in a Christian land?
By Tilaka Mylvaganam
Sydney, Australia
1985
Late Mrs. Tilakavati Mylvaganam 7
