| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
| |
| The Birth of Australia |
| | | Percy Russell |
| |
| |
| NOT ’mid the thunder of the battle guns, | |
| Not on the red field of an Empire’s wrath, | |
| Rose to a nation Australasia’s sons, | |
| Who tread to greatness Industry’s pure path. | |
| Behold a people, through whose annals runs | 5 |
| No damning stain of falsehood, force, or fraud; | |
| Whose sceptre is the ploughshare—not the sword— | |
| Whose glory lives in harvest-ripening suns! | |
| Where ’mid the records of old Rome or Greece | |
| Glows such as tale? Thou canst not answer, Time. | 10 |
| With shield unsullied by a single crime, | |
| With wealth of gold, and still more golden fleece, | |
| Forth stands Australia, in her birth sublime, | |
| The only nation from the womb of Peace! | |
| |
|
|
|
