• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

The Institute of Australian Culture

Heritage, history, and heroes; literature, legends, and larrikins

  • Home
  • Articles
  • Biographies
  • Books
  • Ephemera
  • Poetry & songs
    • Recommended poetry
    • Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
    • Poetry and songs, 1901-1954
    • Rock music and pop music [videos]
    • Early music [videos]
  • Slang
  • Timeline
    • Timeline of Australian history and culture
    • Calendar of Australian history and culture
    • Significant events and commemorative dates
  • Topics

Newcastle [poem by Etienne, 6 January 1864]

14 May 2016 · Leave a Comment

[Editor: A poem published in The Newcastle Chronicle and Hunter River News, 6 January 1864.]

Newcastle.

Lines suggested by a View of the City from the Hill.

The upturned peaks of yonder hills
Loom proudly o’er the expanse of sea,
Yon rocky shoal the landscape fills,
Majestic, boundless, wild, and free.
The lighthouse on the time-worn rock,
The ancient prison on the sand,
The foaming breakers, as each shock
Wakes the dull echo of the land,
Makes up a scene both strange and grand.

Old Hunter’s calm and sluggish tide
Bears many vessels on its breast:
See the throng’d wharves, where, side by side,
Steamers, brigs, ships, and schooners, rest;
Whilst the huge cranes unloading, bend,
With skips brought hither by the train,
From Lambton, Minmi, and Wallsend:
Mark how the mighty boxes strain
The sinews of their well-forged chain.

What boundless source of wealth is found
In our stupendous seams of coal;
Mile succeeds mile of fertile ground,
And still we cannot grasp the whole.
Commerce and trade here raise their shrine,
And scatter blessings as of yore,
So may the lab’rers at each mine
Know Strikes and misery no more.

Awake, Newcastle! there shall be
A brighter day than ere has been;
A better time shall dawn for thee,
Unclouded, peaceful, and serene.
No discord, then, will e’er be found,
And all our strife and envy cease,
Whilst happiness, here, laurel crowned,
Reposes in the arms of peace.

ETIENNE.
Newcastle, Jan. 1st.



Source:
The Newcastle Chronicle and Hunter River News (Newcastle, NSW), 6 January 1864, p. 4

Editor’s notes:
e’er = ever

ere = before (from the Middle English “er”, itself from the Old English “aer”, meaning early or soon)

Hunter = Hunter River (New South Wales)

o’er = over (pronounced the same as “oar”, “or”, and “ore”)

shoal = an area or place where a body of water is shallow (such as a shallow spot in a river or at a sea shore); a sandbank or sandbar in a body of water, which makes the water shallow, especially one that is exposed above the surface of the water (such as at low tide) (may also refer to: a school of fish, a large number of fish; a large number of people or animals)

Filed Under: poetry Tagged With: poem, SourceTrove, year1864

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Australian flag, Kangaroo, Wattle, 100hThe Institute of Australian Culture
Heritage, history, and heroes. Literature, legends, and larrikins. Stories, songs, and sages.

Search this site

Featured books

The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses, by Banjo Paterson A Book for Kids, by C. J. Dennis  The Bulletin Reciter: A Collection of Verses for Recitation from The Bulletin The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, by C. J. Dennis The Complete Inner History of the Kelly Gang and Their Pursuers, by J. J. Kenneally The Foundations of Culture in Australia, by P. R. Stephensen The Australian Crisis, by C. H. Kirmess Such Is Life, by Joseph Furphy
More books (full text)

Featured lists

Timeline of Australian history and culture
A list of significant Australiana
Significant events and commemorative dates
Australian slang
Books (full text)
Australian literature
Rock music and pop music (videos)
Folk music and bush music (videos)
Early music (videos)
Recommended poetry
Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
Poetry and songs, 1901-1954
Australian explorers
Topics
Links

Featured posts

Advance Australia Fair: How the song became the Australian national anthem
Brian Cadd [music videos and biography]
Ned Kelly: Australian bushranger
Under the Southern Cross I Stand [the Australian cricket team’s victory song]

Some Australian authors

E. J. Brady
John Le Gay Brereton
C. J. Dennis
Mary Hannay Foott
Joseph Furphy
Mary Gilmore
Charles Harpur
Grant Hervey
Lucy Everett Homfray
Rex Ingamells
Henry Kendall
“Kookaburra”
Henry Lawson
Jack Moses
“Dryblower” Murphy
John Shaw Neilson
John O’Brien (Patrick Joseph Hartigan)
“Banjo” Paterson
Marie E. J. Pitt
A. G. Stephens
P. R. Stephensen
Agnes L. Storrie (Agnes L. Kettlewell)

Recent Posts

  • [The new stamps] [re the new Tasmanian postage stamps, 2 January 1900]
  • The Leading Lady [poem by “Stargazer”, 31 January 1917]
  • The Naval Contingent: With the Australians in China [17 October 1900]
  • Australia Day [26 January 1953]
  • Australia Day [24 January 1953]

Top Posts & Pages

  • Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
  • Australian slang
  • Dollars or rum: Early Australian currency [by J. H. M. Abbott, 1 April 1931]
  • The Man from Snowy River [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]

Archives

Categories

Posts of note

The Bastard from the Bush [poem, circa 1900]
A Book for Kids [by C. J. Dennis, 1921]
Click Go the Shears [traditional Australian song, 1890s]
Core of My Heart [“My Country”, poem by Dorothea Mackellar, 24 October 1908]
Freedom on the Wallaby [poem by Henry Lawson, 16 May 1891]
The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]
Nationality [poem by Mary Gilmore, 12 May 1942]
The Newcastle song [music video, sung by Bob Hudson]
No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest [poem by Mary Gilmore, 29 June 1940]
Our pipes [short story by Henry Lawson]
Rommel’s comments on Australian soldiers [1941-1942]
Shooting the moon [short story by Henry Lawson]

Recent Comments

  • Robert Buntine on No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest [poem by Mary Gilmore, 29 June 1940]
  • Laurie on The Geebung Polo Club [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • rob buntine on No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest [poem by Mary Gilmore, 29 June 1940]
  • Carol on Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
  • Annie Crestani on Under the Southern Cross I Stand [the Australian cricket team’s victory song]

For Australia

Copyright © 2023 · Log in