Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE BIRTH OF AUSTRALIA, by PERCY RUSSELL


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE BIRTH OF AUSTRALIA, by                    
First Line: Not 'mid the thunder of the battle guns
Last Line: The only nation from the womb of peace!
Subject(s): Australia


NOT 'mid the thunder of the battle guns,
Not on the red field of an Empire's wrath,
Rose to a nation Australasia's sons,
Who tread to greatness Industry's pure path.
Behold a people, through whose annals runs
No damning stain of falsehood, force, or fraud;
Whose sceptre is the ploughshare -- not the sword --
Whose glory lives in harvest-ripening suns!
Where 'mid the records of old Rome or Greece
Glows such a tale? Thou canst not answer, Time.
With shield unsullied by a single crime,
With wealth of gold, and still more golden fleece,
Forth stands Australia, in her birth sublime,
The only nation from the womb of Peace!





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