| |
| CELESTIAL poesy! whose genial sway | |
| Earth’s farthest habitable shores obey; | |
| Whose inspirations shed their sacred light | |
| Far as the regions of the Arctic night, | |
| And to the Laplander his Boreal gleam | 5 |
| Endear not less than Phoebus’ brighter beam— | |
| Descend thou also on my native land, | |
| And on some mountain summit take thy stand; | |
| Thence issuing soon a purer fount be seen | |
| Than charm’d Castalia or fam’d Hippocrene; | 10 |
| And there a richer, nobler fame arise | |
| Than on Parnassus met the adoring eyes. | |
| And tho’, bright Goddess, on those far blue hills, | |
| That pour their thousand swift pellucid rills, | |
| Where Warragamba’s rage has rent in twain | 15 |
| Opposing mountains, thund’ring to the plain, | |
| No child of song has yet invoked thy aid, | |
| ’Neath their primaeval solitary shade,— | |
| Still, gracious Pow’r, some kindling soul inspire | |
| To wake to life my country’s unknown lyre, | 20 |
| That from creation’s date has slumbering lain, | |
| Or only breath’d some savage uncouth strain,— | |
| And grant that yet an Austral Milton’s song | |
| Pactolus-like flow deep and rich along,— | |
| An Austral Shakespeare rise, whose living page | 25 |
| To Nature true may charm in ev’ry age;— | |
| And that an Austral Pinder daring soar, | |
| Where not the Theban Eagle reach’d before. | |
| |
| And, O Britannia! shouldst thou cease to ride | |
| Despotic Empress of old Ocean’s tide;— | 30 |
| Should thy tam’d Lion—spent his former might— | |
| No longer roar, the terror of the fight;— | |
| Should e’er arrive that dark, disastrous hour, | |
| When, bow’d by luxury, thou yield’st to power;— | |
| When thou, no longer freest of the free, | 35 |
| To some proud victor bend’st the vanquished knee;— | |
| May all thy glories in another sphere | |
| Relume, and shine more brightly still than here: | |
| May this—thy last-born infant—then arise, | |
| To glad thy heart, and greet thy parent eyes; | 40 |
| And Australasia float, with flag unfurl’d, | |
| A new Britannia in another world! | |
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