AUSTRALIA. 



O radiant Land ! o'er whom the sun's first dawning 



Fell brightest when God said, "Let there be Light"; 

 O'er whom the day hung out its bluest awning, 



Flushed to white deeps of star-lustre by night ! 

 O Land exultant ! on whose brow reposes 



A queenlier coronal than has been wrought 

 From light of pearls, or bloom of Eastern roses, 



In the bright workshops of high Poet-thought ! 



O thou who hast, thy splendid hair entwining, 



A toil wove wreath, where are no blood-won bays ; 

 Who standest in a stainless vestment shining 



Before the eyes and lips of love and praise ! 

 O wrought of old, in Orient clime and sunny, 



With all His richest bounties largely decked ; 

 With heart all virgin gold and breath all honey, 



Supremest work of greatest Architect ! 



O Land of widest hope, of promise boundless ! 



Why wert thou left upon a dark, strange sea, 

 To wait through ages fruitless, scentless, soundless, 



Till from thy slumber men should waken thee? 

 Why didst thou lie with -ear that never hearkened 



The sounds without the cries of strife ard play, 

 As some sweet child within a chamber darkened, 



Left sleeping long into a troubled clay? 



What opiate sealed thine eyes till all the others 



Grew tired and faint in East and West and North ? 

 Why didst thou dream until thy joyful brothers 



Found where thou wert, and led thee smiling forth ? 

 Why didst thou mask the radiant smile thou wearest ? 



Why wert thou veiled from all the eager eyes? 

 Why left so long, O first of lands and fairest, 



Beneath thy tent of unronjectured skies? 



We know thy secret. In the awful ages, 



When yet was silence, and the world was white : 



Ere yet on the Recording Volume's pages 

 The stern-browed Angel had begun to write. 



Ere yet from Eden the sad feet had wandered, 

 Or yet was sin, or any spilth of blood ; 



In august judgment. God the Father pondered 

 in His work, and saw that it was good 



The Sovereign of suns and stars, the thunder 



Of whose dread Power we cannot understand, 

 Sate gazing long upon the shining wonder 



Of this new world within His hollowed hand, 

 With high, sad eyes, as one that saw a vision. 



And spake, " Lo, this My gift is fair to see 

 I'.ut Pride will mar the glory, and derision 



( if many feet that will not follow Me. 



"I give My creatures shields of hope and warning; 



I set in fruitful ways of peace their first ; 

 liut even these will turn from Me, and scorning 



My counsel, hearken to the one Accurst, 

 And Sin and Pain and Death will make invasion 



Of this abode, and from a world undone, 

 To Heaven will sound the moans of expiation 



They wring from Him, My well-beloved Son. 



"And once again will they, with eyes unheeding 



His Sacrifice, uplift their guilty hands 

 Each to his brother, and with rage exceeding, 



And lust and vengeance, desolate the lands ; 

 But this one land," so mused He, the Creator, 



"This will I bless, and shield from all the woe, 

 That worthier among men, in ages later, 



May find it pure, and, haply, hold it so!" 



Thus, sweet Australia, fell His benediction 



Of sleep upon thee where no wandering breath 

 Might come to tell thee of the loud affliction 



Of cursing tongues, and clamouring hosts of death. 

 So with the peace of His great love around thee, 



And rest that clashing ages could not break, 

 Strong prying eyes of English seekers found thee ; 



Strong English voices cried to thee " Awake ! " 



For them a continent undreamed of, peerless 



A realm for happier sons of theirs to be, 

 One spot preserved, unspotted, bloodless, tearless, 



Beyond the rim of an enchanted sea 

 Lay folded in the soft compelling languor 



Of warm south airs, as an awaiting bride, 

 While strife and hate, and culminating anger 



Raged through the far-off nations battle-dyed. 



Here no dread vestiges stood up imprinted 



With evil messages and brands of Cain, 

 No mounds of death or walls of refuge dinted 



With signs that Christ had lived and died in vain ; 

 No chill memorials here proclaimed the story 



Of kingships stricken for and murders done : 

 Here was a marvel and a separate glory 



One land whose history had not begun ! 



One unsown garden fenced by sea-crags sterile, 



Whose mailed breasts push back strong-breasted waves, 

 From all the years of fierce unrest and peril, 



And slaves, and lords, and broken blades, and graves 

 One gracious freehold for the free, where only 



Soft dusky feet fell, reaching not thy sleep 

 One field inviolate, untroubled, lonely 



Across the dread of the uncharted deep ! 



O dear and fair ! awakened from thy sleeping 



So late ! The world is breaking into noon ; 

 The eyes that all the morn were dim with weeping 



Smile through the tears that will cease dropping soon ! 

 Thine have no tears in them for olden sorrow, 



Thou hast no heartache for a ruined past ; 

 From bright to-day to many a bright to-morrow 



Shall be thy way, O first of lands and last ! 



God make us worthy now ! The bitter mornings 



Of nations struggling from the blind long night 

 Of Wrong, set high before our eyes are warnings, 



And finger-posts to guide us on to Right ! 

 God make us manfullest of men, and bravest, 



To fight the fight for Thine and Thee, and stand 

 Erect and watchful of this gift Thou gavest 



Until at last we sit at Thy right hand ! 



JOHN FARREI.L. 



