Fair Girls and Gray horses - Will H. Ogilvie

Fair Girls and Gray horses! A toast for you 

Who never went wide of a fence or a kiss: 

While horses are horses and eyes are blue 

There is never a toast in the world like this!

To all Fair Girls! For the sake of one 

Whose bright blue eyes were awhile my star, 

Whose hair had the rich red gold of the Sun 

When his kisses fall where the leaf lips are! 

To all Fair Girls! How the red wine gleams 

To the glass's rim as it gleamed that night 

In the jewelled hand of my Dame of Dreams — 

O,  jewelled fingers so soft and white!

To all Fair Girls! Turn your glasses down. 

Here's ‟Blissful bridals and long to live!” 

And if I am slighting your eyes of brown, 

Of Gipsies Born of the Night, forgive! 

To all Gray Horses! Fill up again 

For the sake of a gray horse dear to me; 

For a foam-fed bit and a snatching rein 

And a reaching galloper fast and free! 

To all Gray Horses! For one steed's sake 

Who has carried me many a journey tall 

In the dawn-mists dun when the magpies wake, 

In the starry haze when the night-dews fall! 

To all Gray Horses! Now drink you deep, 

For red wine ruins no rider's nerves: 

‟Light work and a long, long after-sleep!” 

As each gray horse in the world deserves. 

Fair Girls and Gray Horses! To each his way, 

But golden and gray are the loves to hold; 

And if gold tresses must turn to gray 

Gray horses need never he turned into gold!

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Will H. [William Henry] Ogilvie (1869 - 1963) Scotland

Source: Fair girls and gray horses, with other verses, Will H. Ogilvie, Angus and Robertson, 1906

Although he was known as a famous Australian bush poet, Ogilvie was born in Scotland, and spent only 11 years in Australia before returning to his homeland