My Country by Dorothea Mackellar (1885 - 1968) spacer
spacer The love of field and coppice, Of green and shaded lanes. Of ordered woods and gardens Is running in your veins, Strong love of grey-blue distance Brown streams and soft dim skies I know but cannot share it, My love is otherwise.
I love a sunburnt country, A land of sweeping plains, Of ragged mountain ranges, Of droughts and flooding rains. I love her far horizons, I love her jewel-sea, Her beauty and her terror - The wide brown land for me!
A stark white ring-barked forest All tragic to the moon, The sapphire-misted mountains, The hot gold hush of noon. Green tangle of the brushes, Where lithe lianas coil, And orchids deck the tree-tops And ferns the warm dark soil.
Core of my heart, my country! Her pitiless blue sky, When sick at heart, around us, We see the cattle die- But then the grey clouds gather, And we can bless again The drumming of an army, The steady, soaking rain.
Core of my heart, my country! Land of the Rainbow Gold, For flood and fire and famine, She pays us back threefold- Over the thirsty paddocks, Watch, after many days, The filmy veil of greenness That thickens as we gaze.
An opal-hearted country, A wilful, lavish land- All you who have not loved her, You will not understand- Though earth holds many splendours, Wherever I may die, I know to what brown country My homing thoughts will fly.
Some say the chinese and others came earlier than cook, whatever happened, they were here for the gold rush, like everyone else. Then they stopped them coming. So we had the original one s, and now we have another lot. The same with the afghans, etc. The americans overthrew the red indians, who were asian origin, crossed over from russia.
They say that the aboriginals got some indian blood 5000 years ago, either directly or or via transfer of genetics from place to place, but the aboriginals were here for 60000 years and are the oldest civilization. But a lot of people called aboriginal these days look white, because they only have to be a fraction of that race.
so when i look at the horizon I can not help but see A flood of brown coming in From a raging sea The opal hearted country I though i understood Is now a raging shit pile With brown people in the woods I can not help but realize I have lost my brotherhood
The point of the poem was to show that australia has always been "droughts and flooding rains". It is written long before the climate change stuff we are facing now, but the article is good showing this climate thing is rehash of old things. The poem demonstrates the climte change alarmists are "old hat".
My Country
ReplyDeleteby
Dorothea Mackellar
(1885 - 1968)
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The love of field and coppice,
Of green and shaded lanes.
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins,
Strong love of grey-blue distance
Brown streams and soft dim skies
I know but cannot share it,
My love is otherwise.
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror -
The wide brown land for me!
A stark white ring-barked forest
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon.
Green tangle of the brushes,
Where lithe lianas coil,
And orchids deck the tree-tops
And ferns the warm dark soil.
Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When sick at heart, around us,
We see the cattle die-
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady, soaking rain.
Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the Rainbow Gold,
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back threefold-
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze.
An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land-
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand-
Though earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.
Dorothea Mackellar
Good stuff, Bill.
ReplyDeleteBut, what does it mean to the Chinese?
Some say the chinese and others came earlier than cook, whatever happened, they were here for the gold rush, like everyone else. Then they stopped them coming. So we had the original one s, and now we have another lot. The same with the afghans, etc. The americans overthrew the red indians, who were asian origin, crossed over from russia.
DeleteThey say that the aboriginals got some indian blood 5000 years ago, either directly or or via transfer of genetics from place to place, but the aboriginals were here for 60000 years and are the oldest civilization. But a lot of people called aboriginal these days look white, because they only have to be a fraction of that race.
DeleteYou left out the last verse
ReplyDeleteYou left out the last verse
so when i look at the horizon
I can not help but see
A flood of brown coming in
From a raging sea
The opal hearted country
I though i understood
Is now a raging shit pile
With brown people in the woods
I can not help but realize
I have lost my brotherhood
actually the aboriginals are brown. They saw us coming.
ReplyDeleteThe point of the poem was to show that australia has always been "droughts and flooding rains". It is written long before the climate change stuff we are facing now, but the article is good showing this climate thing is rehash of old things. The poem demonstrates the climte change alarmists are "old hat".
ReplyDelete