• 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

The Australian Empire [poem by Marcus Clarke, 2 May 1876]

10 January 2016 · Leave a Comment

[Editor: A poem by Marcus Clarke. Published in The Narracoorte Herald, 2 May 1876. Previously published in The Argus (Melbourne, Vic.), 22 April 1876.]

The Australian Empire.

The subjoined address, which was composed by Mr. Marcus Clark, was delivered at the Theatre Royal, Melbourne, in connection with the eight hours’ celebration, on the evening of April 21:—

The English air is fresh and fair;
The Irish fields are green,
The bright light gleams o’er Scotland’s streams
And glows her hills between.
The hawthorn is in blossom,
And birds from every bough
Make musical the dewy spring,
In April England now.

Our April bears no blossoms,
No promises of spring,
Her gifts are rain and storm and stain,
And surges lash and swing.
No budded wreath doth she bequeath,
Her tempests toss the trees,
No balmy gales, but shivered sails,
And desolated seas.

Yet still we love our April,
For it aids us to bequeath
A gift more fair than blossoms rare,
More sweet than budded wreath.
Our children’s tend’rest memories
’Round Austral April grow;
’Twas the month we won their freedom, boys!
Just twenty years ago.

Though Scotland has her forests,
Though Erin has her vales,
Though plentiful the harvest
In England’s sunny dales;
Yet foul amidst the fairness
The factory chimneys smoke,
And the murmurs of the many
In their burdened bosoms choke.

We hear the children’s voices
Mid the rattle of the looms,
Crying “Wherefore shut God’s heaven
All your golden afternoons?”
Though here the English April
Nor song nor sun imparts,
Its spring is on our children’s lips,
Its summer in their hearts!

We’ve left the land that bore us,
Its castles and its shrines;
We’ve changed the cornfields and the rye
For the olives and the vines.
Yet still we have our castles,
Yet still we bow the knee;
We each enshrine a saint divine,
And her name is Liberty!

Liberty! name of warning!
Did ye feel your pulses beat?
As ye marching, moved this morning
All adown the cheering street?
In your federated freedom,
In your manliness allied,
While the badges of your labour
Were the banners of your pride —

Did your fancies speak prophetic
Of a larger league than this?
With higher aims and nobler claims
To grasp the good we miss!
When in freer federation
In a future yet to be,
Australia stands a nation
From the centre to the sea!

Cheer for Australia, comrades,
And cheer for England, too;
Who loves them both will not be loth
To give each land its due.
So cheer for England, comrades —
Our fathers loved the soil —
And the grandeur of her greatness
Is the measure of their toil.

But never let our sons forget,
Till mem’ry’s self be dead
If England gave us birth, my lads,
Australia gave us bread!
Then cheer for Young Australia,
The Empire of the Free,
Where yet a greater Britain
The Southern Cross shall see.
We’ll not forget, nor yet regret,
The land from whence we’ve flown;
But Britain was our fathers’ land —
Australia is our own, my friends,
Australia is our own!



Source:
The Narracoorte Herald (Narracoorte, SA), 2 May 1876, p. 4

Also published, under a variety of titles, in:
The Argus (Melbourne, Vic.), 22 April 1876, p. 8 [no title given; published under the heading “The demonstration at the Theatre Royal.”]
The Kapunda Herald and Northern Intelligencer (Kapunda, SA), 9 May 1876, p. 4 [title: “The Australian Empire.”]
The Bendigo Advertiser (Sandhurst [Bendigo], Vic.), 20 April 1889, p. 5 [title: “Eight Hours Anniversary.”]
The Age (Melbourne, Vic.), 27 July 1899, p. 6 [title: “An Australian Paean.”]
The Kalgoorlie Miner (Kalgoorlie, WA), 12 August 1899, p. 7 [title: “Federated Australia.”]
The Kalgoorlie Western Argus (Kalgoorlie, WA), 17 August 1899, p. 29 [title: “Federated Australia.”]
The Swan Express (Midland Junction, WA), 8 December 1900, p. 3 [title: “’Labor & Federation.”]
The Daily Telegraph (Launceston, Tas.), 29 December 1900, p. 11 [title: “An Australian Paean.”]
The Advocate (Burnie, Tas.), 18 March 1946, p. 6 [title: “England and Australia.”]
The Advocate (Burnie, Tas.), 17 February 1947, p. 8 [title: “England and Australia.”]

Editor’s notes:
According to the The Bendigo Advertiser, of 20 April 1889, the poem was “written by the late Marcus Clarke for the celebration of the 20th anniversary, of the Eight Hours’ Movement, and spoken by Mr. Alfred Dampier on the stage of the Theatre Royal, 20th April, 1876”.

Austral = of or relating to Australia or Australasia; Australian, Australasian; an abbreviation of Australia, Australian, Australasia, Australasian; in a wider context, of or relating to the southern hemisphere; southern, especially a southern wind

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

loth = reluctant or unwilling; a variant spelling of “loath” (as distinct from “loathe”, being to detest or hate)

Old spelling in the original text:
doth (does)
ye (you)

[Editor: Corrected “childrens’ voices” to “children’s voices”.]

Filed Under: poetry Tagged With: Editor’s notes additional, federation poetry, labour poetry, Marcus Clarke (1846-1881) (author), poem, SourceTrove, year1876

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

  • Australia Day [26 January 1953]
  • Australia Day [24 January 1953]
  • Australia Day [29 January 1951]
  • Australia Day [28 January 1950]
  • Danger-signals from Australia [2 January 1942]

Top Posts & Pages

  • Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
  • Australian slang
  • The Man from Snowy River [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • The Bastard from the Bush [poem, circa 1900]
  • The Bard and the Lizard [poem by John Shaw Neilson]

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

  • 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]
  • Peter Pearsall on The Clarence [poem by Jack Moses]
  • Trevor Hurst on Timeline of Australian history and culture

For Australia

Copyright © 2023 · Log in