Nationalism And M'Ilwraith! The Queensland Elections Cry, 1888.

Australia listened! Through the brawling game         Of played-out rascals gambling for her gold,         The rotten-hearted traitors who had sold      For flimsy English gauds her righteous fame -      Through the foul hubbub, it did seem, there came         The still small voice of nobler things untold.         But now, but now with wonder manifold      She hears a voice that calls her by her name!      Australia listens, as the mother wilt         To hear her first-born cry. "Say, is it death,      Or life and all life's hope made audible         That thrills my heart and gives my spirit faith?"      From out the gathering war-hosts leaps forth shrill         The double cry, "Australia, M'Ilwraith!"      The dawn is breaking northward! Rise, O Sun,         Australian Liberty, and give us light!         And thou who through the dark and doubtful night      With great clear eyes of patience looking on      Even to that splendid hour REPUBLICAN,         O know what things are with thee in the fight -         What hope and trust, what truth, what right, what might      To never leave this work till it be done!      Not as these others were, the helpless slaves         Of each diurnal need and cringing debt,         Australia's statesman, have we known thee yet! -      The world's great heroes call from a thousand graves:         "Thy land, a nation, cries to thee to be set      Free as the freedom of her ocean waves!"