CCXXVII
A FEDERAL SONG
In the greyness of the dawning we have seen the pilot-star,
In the whisper of the morning we have heard the years afar.
Shall we sleep and let them be
When they call to you and me?
Can we break the land asunder God has girdled with the sea?
For the Flag is floating o’er us,
And the track is clear before us;—
From the desert to the ocean let us lift the mighty chorus
For the days that are to be.
We have flung the challenge forward:—‘Brothers stand or fall as one!’
She is coming out to meet us in the splendour of the sun;—
From the graves beneath the sky
Where her nameless heroes lie,
From the forelands of the Future they are waiting our reply!
We can face the roughest weather
If we only hold together,
Marching forward to the Future, marching shoulder-firm together;
For the Nation yet to be.
All the greyness of the dawning, all the mists are overpast;
In the glory of the morning we shall see her face at last.
He who sang, ‘She yet will be,’
He shall hail her, crowned and free!
Could we break the land asunder God had girdled with the sea?
For the Flag is floating o’er us,
And the star of Hope before us,
From the desert to the ocean, brothers, lift the mighty chorus
For Australian Unity!
George Essex Evans.
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