Publication: Melbourne Herald
Date: 28 September 1922
Flat on my back, with my nose toward the ceiling — Thus I’ve been lying, and dreaming, and feeling A little depressed, For it must be confessed I own many ills that most sadly need healing — Ills of the body and ills that are mental, Also some minor ones, just incidental, And I’ve thought and I’ve thought Till the thinking has brought Moods half philosophic and half sentimental. I’ve roamed all the earth and I’ve marked what is doing: The scheming, the striving, the hoping, the rueing, The fights and the strikes, And the savage dislikes, The troubles upon us and more that are brewing. Here from my bed, with a proper humility, I would suggest that ’tis all but futility. Ne’er in this life Has blind hating and strife Ever bred peace or a blessed tranquillity. Flat on my back, I’ve received a suggestion: Maybe the World has acute indigestion! Would a week to reflect On a bed have effect? I cannot say. It is merely a question. All that I know is that time for reflection Often may end a most grave disaffection. And when all’s said and done, What is good for the one May be good for the many —
(Well, I frankly don’t know. May be and may be not. But it is time for my medicine, and so here I leave you, and conclude by remarking that I stand — or rather, lie — subject to correction.)