(A Song for the Future.)
We'll plant the Tree of Liberty
In the navel of the Land,
And round it ranged as Guardians be,
A vowed and trusty band;
And Sages bold and mighty-souled
Shall dress it day by day ---
But woe unto the Traitor who
Would break one branch away!
Then sing the Tree of Liberty,
For the Vow that we have made!
May it so flourish, that when we
Are buried in its shade,
Fair Womanhood, and Love and Good,
All pilgrims pure, shall go
Its growth to bless for Happiness ---
Oh, may it flourish so.
Till felled by Gold, as Bards have told,
In the Old World once it grew;
But then we know its fruits were sold,
And only to the Few!
But here at last, whate'er his caste,
Each Man at Nature's call,
Shall pluck as well what none may sell ---
The fruit that blooms for All.
Then sing the Tree of Liberty,
And the Men who shall defend
Its glorious Futurity
Of Godlike Hope and End!
Till Happiness a World to bless
Out with its growth shall grow ---
This Tree -- the Tree of Liberty
Shall flourish even so.
First published in The Weekly Register of Politics, Facts and General Literature, 20 September 1845;
and later in
The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser, 4 November 1846;
The People's Advocate and New South Wales Vindicator, 1 December 1849;
The Bushrangers, a Play in Five Acts, and Other Poems by Charles Harpur, 1853;
Freedom on the Wallaby:Poems of the Australian People edited by Marjorie Pizer, 1953; and
The Poetical Works of Charles Harpur edited by Elizabeth Perkins, 1984.
Author reference sites: Austlit, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Australian Poetry Library
See also.
We'll plant the Tree of Liberty
In the navel of the Land,
And round it ranged as Guardians be,
A vowed and trusty band;
And Sages bold and mighty-souled
Shall dress it day by day ---
But woe unto the Traitor who
Would break one branch away!
Then sing the Tree of Liberty,
For the Vow that we have made!
May it so flourish, that when we
Are buried in its shade,
Fair Womanhood, and Love and Good,
All pilgrims pure, shall go
Its growth to bless for Happiness ---
Oh, may it flourish so.
Till felled by Gold, as Bards have told,
In the Old World once it grew;
But then we know its fruits were sold,
And only to the Few!
But here at last, whate'er his caste,
Each Man at Nature's call,
Shall pluck as well what none may sell ---
The fruit that blooms for All.
Then sing the Tree of Liberty,
And the Men who shall defend
Its glorious Futurity
Of Godlike Hope and End!
Till Happiness a World to bless
Out with its growth shall grow ---
This Tree -- the Tree of Liberty
Shall flourish even so.
First published in The Weekly Register of Politics, Facts and General Literature, 20 September 1845;
and later in
The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser, 4 November 1846;
The People's Advocate and New South Wales Vindicator, 1 December 1849;
The Bushrangers, a Play in Five Acts, and Other Poems by Charles Harpur, 1853;
Freedom on the Wallaby:Poems of the Australian People edited by Marjorie Pizer, 1953; and
The Poetical Works of Charles Harpur edited by Elizabeth Perkins, 1984.
Author reference sites: Austlit, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Australian Poetry Library
See also.
