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Home  »  The Oxford Book of Australasian Verse  »  62 . Australian Federation

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

By William Gay

62 . Australian Federation

FROM all division let our land be free,

For God has made her one: complete she lies

Within the unbroken circle of the skies,

And round her indivisible the sea

Breaks on her single shore; while only we,

Her foster children, bound with sacred ties

Of one dear blood, one storied enterprise,

Are negligent of her integrity.—

Her seamless garment, at great Mammon’s nod,

With hands unfilial we have basely rent,

With petty variance our souls are spent,

And ancient kinship underfoot is trod:

O let us rise, united, penitent,

And be one people,—mighty, serving God!