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Home  »  The Oxford Book of Australasian Verse  »  61 . Australia, 1894

Walter Murdoch (1874–1970). The Oxford Book of Australasian Verse. 1918.

By William Gay

61 . Australia, 1894

SHE sits a queen whom none shall dare despoil,

Her crown the sun, her guard the vigilant sea,

And round her throne are gathered, stalwart, free,

A people proud, yet stooping to the soil,

Patient to swell her greatness with their toil,

And swift to leave, should dire occasion be,

The mine, the flock, the desk, the furrowed lea,

And force the invader to a dark recoil.—

Yet as she gazes o’er the plains that lie

Fruitful about her throne, she sighs full sore

To see the barriers Greed has builded high,

Dividing them who brothers were before,

When still they dwelt beneath a sterner sky

And heard the thunders of a wilder shore.