AUSTRALIA! land of lonely lake
And serpent-haunted fen;
Land of the torrent and the fire
And forest-sundered men:
Thou art not now as thou shalt be
When the stern invaders come,
In the hush before the hurricane,
The dread before the drum.
A louder thunder shall be heard
Than echoes on thy shore,
When o-er the blackened basalt cliffs
The foreign cannon roar-
When the stand is made in the sheoaks- shade
When heroes fall for thee,
And the creeks in gloomy gullies run
Dark crimson to the sea:
When under honeysuckles gray,
And wattles- swaying gold,
The stalwart arm may strike no more,
The valiant heart is cold-
When thou shalt know the agony,
The fever, and the strife
Of those who wrestle against odds
For liberty and life:
Then is the great Dominion born,
The seven sisters bound,
From Sydney-s greenly wooded port
To lone King George-s Sound-
Then shall the islands of the south,
The lands of bloom and snow,
Forth from their isolation come
To meet the common foe.
Then, only then-when after war
Is peace with honour born,
When from the bosom of the night
Comes golden-sandalled morn,
When laurelled victory is thine,
And the day of battle done,
Shall the heart of a mighty people stir,
And Australia be as one.
Australian Federata
James Lister Cuthbertson
(1)
Poem topics: dark, fire, isolation, life, lonely, night, peace, people, sea, snow, war, shore, battle, king, shade, great, cold, gold, victory, thunder, Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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