Poem: The First Great Australian Poet by Charles Harpur

Glorious His lot whom Poesie shall name
   Her first High Priest in this so sunny Clime,
Though thereby clothed as with a Robe of Flame! --
   With her Creations of the Olden Time
   Much conversant, and by their bulk sublime
Moulding new matter, let him build to Fame;
Quarrying from Nature's everlasting frame
   The scultured beauty of his lofty Rhyme.
   Then mirrored ever in his polished page
Shall grow his Countrywoman's lustrous eyes;
   And Future Patriots a righteous rage
Thence catch or simulate -- the Brave, and Wise,
And Lovely, so, beneath his native skies,
   Hallowing his Memory from age to age.

First published in The Weekly Register of Politics, Facts and General Literature, 3 May 1845