Shadows Before

1885

Henry Lawson

LIKE clouds o’er the South are the nations that reign
    On fair islands that we would command;
But clouds that are darker and denser than these
Have sailed from an Isle in the Northern Seas
    And rest on our Southern Land.

Low in dust is our Goddess of Liberty hurled
    At our feet, and the time is at hand
When we, the proud sons of the southern world,
Beneath a proud banner of freedom unfurled
    And true to each other shall stand.

If e’er in the ranks of the Right we advance,
    Though our enemies come like a flood,
We’ll meet them like lions, aroused from our trance,
And show that a streak of the Olden Romance
    Still runs in our commonplace blood.

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