[Editor: This poem, about the birthday of Queen Victoria (born 24 May 1819), written by “R.G.S.” — a pseudonym of John Neilson (1844-1922) — was published in The Border Watch (Mount Gambier, SA), 24 May 1879.]
A Birthday Ode.
This is Victoria’s natal day,
Raise high your flags and let them fly
All loyal hearts, and cry hurrah!
“With shout as when a Queen goes by.”
God save the Queen on whose domain
The sun ne’er sets; long may she reign.
Here South Australia holds at bay
The billows of the southern main;
And while our loud songs swell to-day,
Their deep notes mingle with the strain;
Like distant cannon’s muffled sound,
Their deep-toned anthem shakes the ground.
Throughout Australia’s happy homes,
By spreading plains or woodland green,
Is heard in childhood’s winsome tones
This strain — “God save our gracious Queen.”
To-day Victoria’s anthem’s sung
Where’er we bear our mother tongue.
That strain is heard on distant plains,
Where our adventurous brave pioneers,
With laden camels, towards the main
Brings down the harvest of the shears;
While some wild song his Arab sings
Of balmy Yemen’s pleasant springs.
Our pioneers trod those wastes at first,
Where never grateful sea breeze fanned,
And brought us back, through pain and thirst,
The story of the desert land.
Heaven send Australia sons like them,
Our sun-bronzed, way-worn, manly men.
Advance Australia, sweep aside
All caste of class and party hate;
We see in thee, whate’er betide,
The birth throes of a mighty state.
Men oft look back in manhood’s prime,
And smile o’er feuds of childhood’s time.
Loud swell the strains of jubilee,
Our joy-bells ring, with merry peal,
Our banners wave by land and sea;
And from their echoing throats of steel,
The cannon’s roll swells far away
To grace Victoria’s natal day.
R. G. S.
Penola.
Source:
The Border Watch (Mount Gambier, SA), 24 May 1879, p. 4
Editor’s notes:
jubilee = a special anniversary of an event (especially the celebration of a 25th or 50th year anniversary)
main = the high sea, the open ocean
natal day = birthday; the day on which a person was born; the day on which an organisation, institution, state, or nation was founded (or the anniversary thereof)
ne’er = (vernacular) an archaic contraction of “never”
thee = (archaic) you
Victoria = Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom; she was born in Kensington Palace, London (England), in 1819, ascended to the throne in 1837 (she remained Queen until her death), and died at the royal residence in East Cowes (Isle of Wight, UK) in 1901
See: 1) “Victoria: queen of United Kingdom”,
2) “Victoria (r. 1837-1901)”, The Royal Family (UK)
3) “Queen Victoria”, Wikipedia
where’er = (vernacular) an archaic contraction of “wherever”
Yemen = a country located on the south-western end of the Arabian Peninsula
[Editor: Changed “To day Victoria’s” to “To-day Victoria’s”.]
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