The Land where I was Born

John Shaw Neilson 1872 (Penola, South Australia) – 1942 (Melbourne, Victoria)



HAVE you ever been down to my countree   
 Where the trees are green and tall?   
The days are long and the heavens are high,   
 But the people there are small.   
There is no work there; it is always play;           
 The sun is sweet in the morn;   
But a thousand dark things walk at night   
 In the land where I was born.   
  
Have you ever been down to my countree   
 Where the birds made happy Spring?           
The parrots screamed from the honey-trees,   
 And the jays hopped chattering.   
Strange were the ways of the water-birds   
 In the brown swamps, night and morn;   
I knew the roads they had in the reeds           
 In the land where I was born.   
  
Have you ever been down to my countree?   
 Have you ridden the horses there?   
They had silver manes, and we made them prance   
 And plunge and gallop and rear.           
We were knights of the olden time,   
 When the old chain-mail was worn:   
The swords would flash and the helmets crash   
 In the land where I was born.   
  
Have you ever been down to my countree?           
 It was full of smiling queens:   
They had flaxen hair, they were white and fair,   
 But they never reached their teens.   
Their shoes were small and their dreams were tall:   
 Wonderful frocks were worn;           
But the queens all strayed from the place we played,   
 In the land where I was born.   
  
I know you have been to my countree   
 Though I never saw you there;   
I know you have loved all things I have loved,           
 Flowery, sweet, and fair.   
The days were long,—it was always play;   
 But we,—we were tired and worn;   
They could not welcome us back again   
 To the land where I was born.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:27 min read
39

Quick analysis:

Scheme AbxbcdxD AexexdxD AaxaxdxD AfafbdxD aaxacdxd
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,656
Words 291
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8, 8, 8

John Shaw Neilson

John Shaw Neilson was an Australian poet. Slightly built, for most of his life he worked as a labourer, fruit-picking, clearing scrub, navvying and working in quarries, and, after 1928, working as a messenger with the Country Roads Board in Melbourne. he died when he was 70 years old. more…

All John Shaw Neilson poems | John Shaw Neilson Books

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