[Editor: A poem by Charles Harpur.]
XXXV.
The Tree of Liberty
(A Song for the Future.)
We’ll plant the Tree of Liberty
In the centre of the Land,
And round it ranged as Guardians be
A vowed and trusty band ;
And Sages bold and mighty-souled
Shall dress it day by day —
But woe unto the Traitor who
Would break one branch away !
Then sing the Tree of Liberty,
For the Vow that we have made !
May it so flourish, that when we
Are buried in its shade,
Fair Womanhood, and Love and Good,
All pilgrims pure, shall go,
Its growth to bless for happiness —
O may it flourish so.
Till felled by gold, as Bards have told,
In the Old World once it grew;
But then we know its fruits were SOLD,
And only to the few !
But here at last, whate’er his caste,
Each man at Nature’s call,
Shall pluck as well what none may sell —
The fruit that blooms for ALL.
Then sing the Tree of Liberty,
And the Men who shall defend
Its glorious Futurity
Of godlike hope and end :
Till happiness a World to bless
Out with its growth shall grow —
This Southern Tree of Liberty
Shall flourish even so.
Source:
The Maitland Mercury & Hunter River General Advertiser (Maitland, NSW), Wednesday 4 November 1846, page 1
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