[Editor: A poem by Charles Harpur, published in The Sydney Monitor, 26 September 1835.]
Melody.
By C. Harpur.
Australia, how ’rapt can I wend by thy fountains,
Or view thy wild champaigns spread far on my sight,
And rise in my love, as I rise on thy mountains
Where the proud noble eagle doth love to alight.
And where’s the Australian,who without emotion,
Can view thy wild scenes, grandest Isle in the ocean;
Nor feel his breast glow with mysterious devotion,
That leads him to laud thee, Australia huzza.
And oft as I muse on thy surge-sounding shores
Thro’ the night of the future, my fancy will roam;
I see the sun’s beams light a day far before us,
And walk in the blaze of thy glory to come.
And then from thy dark cliffs that scorneth the ocean,
I pay thee a tribute of heart felt devotion,
And with the wild pride of the Minstrel’s emotion
I sing as I wander, Australia huzza.
Be proud of thy sons for should war e’er invade thee
Mark — the nations shall know them as dreadful to foes,
And thy daughters, for they with bright charms have arrayed thee,
As the rose is the pride of the bough where it grows
Not a flower in thy garden of beauty is wanting
For aught that could render the female enchanting;
Ay, aught that could ravish the lover to panting,
May be found in thy fair ones, Australia huzza.
Source:
The Sydney Monitor (Sydney, NSW), Saturday 26 September 1835, page 4
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