Thursday, January 26, 2012

HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY!



To celebrate this day I want to share possibly THE most famous Australian poem ever... illustrating the second verse with some photos from my ever-expanding collection.

My Country     by Dorothea Mackellar

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.
...

Am feeling very patriotic today... hope my photos do dear Dorothea justice... Jo

11 comments:

  1. thats just beautiful, and beautiful photos as well, Happy Australia Day!

    ReplyDelete
  2. You live in a beautiful country. Your snakes and bugs scare me but the other wildlife is fascinating. Happy day to you!

    ReplyDelete
  3. hurrah! I spent six short months in NSW, Qsld, WA, in 1966-67 and it remains a part of me to this day. Thank you! Love your collages!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wonderful photos, still think parts of that poem are the embodiement (not sure if this is a word!) of Australia.
    Have a lovely Australia Day.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Great tribute to our 'lucky country', Jo - thanks for helping me to feel even more grateful.

    ReplyDelete
  6. What a beautiful country you have Jo. I'll probably never make it your way, so thank you for sharing the wonderful photos!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Pure jusitce Jo! Stunning imagery, hope you had a great day.

    ReplyDelete
  8. that certainly is a beautiful tribute...very moving and just plain wonderful!

    oxo

    ReplyDelete
  9. Lovely post. You might like to see my post about the Picasso exhibition in Sydney. It finishes on the 25th March. http://caroleschatter.blogspot.co.nz/2012/03/picasso-exhibition-art-gallery-of-new.html

    ReplyDelete