Explore "A National Song for Australia Felix" by Andrew Barton Paterson on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Dark over the face of Nature sublime! / Reign'd tyranny, warfare, and every crime; / The world a desert -- no oasis green / A man-loving soul on its surface had seen; / Then mercy above a mandate sent forth / An Eden to form -- a refuge for worth. / From the ocean it came, with halo so bright, / Want, strife, and oppression were lost in its sight.
Chorus / First isle of the sea -- brightest gem of the earth / In thee every virtue and joy shall have birth. / A land of the just, the brave, and the free, / Australia the happy, thou ever shalt be.