NationMaster - Encyclopedia: My Country

"My Country" is an iconic patriotic poem about Australia, written by Dorothea Mackellar (1885-1968) at the age of 19 while homesick in England. After travelling through Europe extensively with her father during her teenage years she started writing the poem in London in 1904^[1] and re-wrote it several times after her return to Sydney. The poem was first published in the London Spectator in 1908 under the title Core of My Heart. It was reprinted in many Australian newspapers, quickly becoming well known and establishing Mackellar as a poet. MÃ¡ vlast (traditionally translated as My Country or more literally My Fatherland) is a set of six symphonic poems composed between 1874 and 1879 by the Czech composer BedÅ™ich Smetana. ... Portrait of BedÅ™ich Smetana BedÅ™ich Smetana (pronounced ; 2 March 1824 - 12 May 1884) was a Czech composer. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... American cultural icons. ... Isobel Marion Dorothea Mackellar OBE, (July 1, 1885-January 14, 1968), was an Australian poet and fiction writer. ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... This is about the city of Sydney in Australia. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... The Spectator is a conservative British political magazine, established 1828, published weekly. ... Year 1908 (MCMVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Tuesday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ...

Mackellar's family owned substantial properties in the Gunnedah district of New South Wales and the inspiration for her poems undoubtedly came from the time she spent on the rural properties as a child. My Country uses metaphorical imagery to describe the land after the breaking of a long drought. Of ragged mountain ranges possibly refer to the Mount Royal Ranges, and the Barrington Tops. Gunnedah is a town and Local government area (see Gunnedah Shire Council) in north-western New South Wales, Australia. ... NSW redirects here. ... This article is about metaphor in literature and rhetoric. ... Fields outside Benambra, Victoria, Australia suffering from drought conditions A drought is an extended period of months, or years, when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply. ... Mount Royal is a national park in New South Wales (Australia), 187km north of Sydney. ... Barrington Tops is a World Heritage listed National Park in the Hunter Valley, approximately 200 km north of Sydney in New South Wales, Australia. ...

The first stanza refers to England, and the fact that the vast majority of Australians of that era were of British birth or ancestry. The second stanza is amongst the most well-known pieces of Australian poetry.^[1] In poetry, a stanza is a unit within a larger poem. ... Australian literature began soon after the establishment of the country by Europeans. ...

MacKellar's first anthology of poems, The Closed Door, published in Australian in 1911 included the poem. The last line of the third stanza, "And ferns the warm dark soil" originally read as "And ferns the crimson soil". Her second anthology, The Witch Maid & Other Verses, published in 1914 included the original version as shown below.^[2]

My Country

The love of field and coppice

Of green and shaded lanes,

Of ordered woods and gardens

Is running in your veins.

Strong love of grey-blue distance,

Brown streams and soft, dim skies

I know, but cannot share it,

My love is otherwise.

I love a sunburnt country,

A land of sweeping plains,

Of ragged mountain ranges,

Of drought and flooding rains.

I love her far horizons,

I love her jewel-sea,

Her beauty and her terror

The wide brown land for me!

The stark white ring-barked forests,

All tragic to the moon,

The sapphire-misted mountains,

The hot gold hush of noon,

Green tangle of the brushesi wemtn hlk

Where lithe lianas coil,

And orchids deck the tree-tops,

And ferns the warm dark soil.

Core of my heart, my country!

Her pitiless blue sky,

When, sick at heart, around us

We see the cattle die

But then the grey clouds gather,

And we can bless again

The drumming of an army,

The steady soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!

Land of the rainbow gold,

For flood and fire and famine

She pays us back threefold.

Over the thirsty paddocks,

Watch, after many days,

The filmy veil of greenness

That thickens as we gaze…

An opal-hearted country,

A wilful, lavish land

All you who have not loved her,

You will not understand

though Earth holds many splendours,

Wherever I may die,

I know to what brown country

My homing thoughts will fly.

Notes

Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 223rd day of the year (224th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 220th day of the year (221st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

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