Australian Anthem.
The Sun of Australia.
By Robert Wisdom.
The Sun of Australia rose
’Mid the storms and clouds of crime,
And his lustre was dimmed with wrongs and woes
Such as those of the olden time.
But the voice of heaven was heard aloud,
And that sun burst forth from his sable cloud ;
And as to light and life he sprung,
The chorus of guardian angels sung,
Hail ! Sun of Australia ! Hail !
Bright, glorious, golden sun —
All the suns of the earth in their lustre shall pale
Ere thy cloudless race be run.
The Sun of Australia shone
Forth with all his beams unshorn,
And earth never saw a more glorious one,
Or so heavenly fair a morn.
And all things beneath him as he shone
Borrowed the hues of that golden sun,
From the flowers with their yellow blossoms bright,
To the maiden’s hair that glowed with light.
Hail ! Sun of Australia, &c.
The lustra of that sun’s beams
Was like the magician’s wand,
And wherever it fell on her hills and streams,
It turned to gold their sand ;
And her lovely name is in every mouth —
In the East and West, in the North and South, —
And they flock from every foreign strand
To the shores of Australia’s golden land.
Hail ! Sun of Australia, &c.
The sky was clear above,
And the sea was calm around,
And there breathed a holy Spirit of Love
O’er all that enchanted ground ;
And across my enraptured soul there came
A shadowy vision of future fame :
Methought that her land the nurse would be
Of the virtuous fair and the valiant free !
Hail ! Sun of Australia, &c.
Knowledge and Wealth and Power
Were hers, and a boundless fame,
And all the nations of earth did shower
Warm blessings upon her name ;
And the thousand beautiful South Sea isles
Basked in the light of her sun’s warm smiles,
And their darkness and doubt all rolled away
’Neath the light of that brighter and better Day.
Hail ! Sun of Australia, &c.
Even now we can scarcely gaze
On that young sun’s morning light ;
But what eye shall bear his effulgent blaze
When he reaches his noontide height ?
Then, then by the force of his potent spell
Shall the clouds of sorrow and crime dispel ;
Justice shall triumph, and carnage cease,
And the world be one wide home of Love and Peace.
Hail ! Sun of Australia ! Hail !
Bright, glorious, golden sun —
All the suns of the earth in their lustre shall pale
Ere thy cloudless race be run.
1851.
Note. — There could not, I think, be a more appropriate or more beautiful device for the national banner of Australia than a rising sun on a blue ground : the former typifying her rising greatness and glory, and the latter, her serene and unclouded sky. It would also be emblematic of hope in the future, and that glorious and un- broken peace which seems to be the destiny of Australia.
R. W.
Source:
The Empire (Sydney, NSW), Tuesday 17 October 1854, page 3
[Editor: Corrected “malden” to “maiden”; “Spirt” to “Spirit”.]
The Institute of Australian Culture
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