Our Children’s Native Land [poem by Henry Parkes, 20 July 1841]

[Editor: A poem by Henry Parkes. Published in the Australasian Chronicle, 20 July 1841.]

Song. — Our Children’s Native Land.

Who here to night, when he was young,
Beside his father’s hearth,
Has ne’er breath’d forth some patriot song,
Some spirit strain of earth;
And warm’d as flow’d the words of fame
Amidst some social band,
Till life and love have lost all claim
Before his native land?

We meet to night, alas! how far
From that dear spot of earth
Where in their graves our fathers are,
Which gave us Britons birth!
But here’s a toast will gladden us
Upon Australia’s strand,
Peace to the land we live in thus,
Our children’s native land!

H. Parkes.

Source:
Australasian Chronicle (Sydney, NSW), 20 July 1841, p. 2