The Australian
Once more this Autumn-earth is ripe,
Parturient of another type.
While with the Past old nations merge
His foot is on the Future’s verge;
They watch him, as they huddle pent,
Striding a spacious continent,
Above the level desert’s marge
Looming in his aloofness large.
No flower with fragile sweetness graced—
A lank weed wrestling with the waste.
Pallid of face and gaunt of limb,
Ihe sweetness withered out of him.
Sombre, indomitable, wan,
The juices dried, the glad youth gone.
A little weary from his birth;
His laugh the spectre of a mirth.
Bitter beneath a bitter sky,
To Nature he has no reply.
Wanton, perhaps, and cruel. Yes,
Is not his sun more merciless?
Joy his such niggard dole to give,
He laughs, a child, glad just to live.
So drab and neutral is his day
He gleans a splendour in the grey.
And from his life’s monotony
He lifts a subtle melody.
When earth so poor a banquet makes
His pleasures at a gulp he takes.
The feast is his to the last crumb;
Drink while he can, the drought will come.
His heart a sudden tropic flower,
He loves and loathes within an hour.
Yet you who by the pools abide,
Judge not the man who swerves aside.
He sees beyond your hazy fears;
He roads the desert of the years.
Rearing his cities in the sand,
He builds where even God has banned.
With green a continent he crowns,
And stars a wilderness with towns.
His gyves of steel the great plain wears;
With roads the distances he snares.
A child given a world for toy,
To build a nation, or destroy.
His childish features frozen stern,
A nation’s task he has to learn.
From feeble tribes to federate
One splendid, peace-encompassed State.
What if there be no goal to reach?
Tne road lies open, dawns beseech!
Enough that he lay down his load
A little further on the road.
So, toward undreamt-of destinies
He slouches down the centuries!
This work is in the public domain in Australia because it was created in Australia and the term of copyright has expired. According to Australian Copyright Council - Duration of Copyright, the following works are public domain:
- published non-government works whose author died before January 1, 1955,
- anonymous or pseudonymous works and photographs published before January 1, 1955, and
- government works published more than 50 years ago (before January 1, 1974).
This work is also in the public domain in the United States because it was first published outside the United States (and not published in the U.S. within 30 days), and it was first published before 1989 without complying with U.S. copyright formalities (renewal and/or copyright notice) and it was in the public domain in Australia on the URAA date (January 1, 1996). This is the combined effect of Australia having joined the Berne Convention in 1928, and of 17 USC 104A with its critical date of January 1, 1996.
Because the Australian copyright term in 1996 was 50 years, the critical date for copyright in the United States under the URAA is January 1, 1946.
This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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