Queen of the South! which the mighty Pacific <br />Claims for its Britain in ages to be, <br />Bright with fair visions and hopes beatific, <br />Glorious and happy thy future I see! <br />Thither the children of England are thronging, <br />There for true riches securely to search; <br />Not for thy gold, California, longing, <br />But for sweet home, with enough, and a Church! <br /> <br />There, a soft clime, and a soil ever teeming <br />Summer's December, and Winter's July, <br />The bright Southern Cross in the firmament gleaming, <br />The Dove, and the Crown, and the Altar on high,- <br />There, the broad prairies with forest and river, <br />There, the safe harbours are bidding men search <br />For Thy best blessings, O heavenly Giver! <br />Home, with enough, and an Englishman's Church! <br /> <br />Yes; for Britannia, the Mother of Nations, <br />Sends out her children, as teeming old Greece, <br />Good men and great men, to stand in their stations, <br />Merchants of plenty, and heralds of peace: <br />Stout Anglo-Saxons! Port Victory calls you; <br />Take the glad omen, and speedily search <br />Where you shall gather, whatever befalls you, <br />Truest of treasures, a Home and a Church! <br /> <br />Fifty years hence,- look forward and see it, <br />Realm of New Zealand, what then shalt thou see? <br />(If the world lives, at The Father's So be it) <br />All shall be greatness and glory with thee! <br />Even should Britain's decay be down-written <br />In the dread doom-book that no man may search, <br />Still shall on Oxford, a London, a Britain, <br />Gladden the South with a Home and a Church!<br /><br />Martin Farquhar Tupper<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/new-zealand-a-song-for-the-antipodes/
