"Like clouds o'er the South are the nations who reign <br />On fair islands that we would command; <br />But clouds that are darker and denser than these <br />Have sailed from an Isle in the Northern Seas <br />And rest on our Southern Land. <br /> <br />Low in dust is our Goddess of Liberty hurled <br />At our feet, and the time is at hand, <br />When we, the proud sons of the southern world, <br />Beneath a proud banner of freedom unfurled <br />And true to each other shall stand. <br /> <br />If e'er in the ranks of the Right we advance; <br />Though our enemies come like a flood, <br />We'll meet them like lions, aroused from our trance, <br />And show that a streak of the Olden Romance <br />Still runs in our commonplace blood.<br /><br />Henry Lawson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/shadows-before/
