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Geelong Pages by Marpessa
 Marpessa's Geelong Travelogues | | | |
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| Page Views: 409 Last Visit to Geelong: - I Live Here | A poem, a folk song and a rock song by Marpessa - last update: Apr 11, 2006 |
A PoemThis poem was written by Dorothea Mackellar when she was 19 years old. She was born in Sydney in 1885.
It is a beautiful poem, and I agree with the last verse in particular. |
My CountryThe 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 rugged mountain ranges,
Of droughts 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 brushes
Where the 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...
The 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.
Dorothea Mackellar
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| A Folk Song(First published in 1893 - it's about convicts from England sailing to Australia.) |
Botany BayFarewell to old England forever
Farewell to my rum culls as well
Farewell to the well known Old Bailey
Where I used for to cut such a swell
Singing Tooral liooral liaddity
Singing Tooral liooral liay
Singing Tooral liooral liaddity
And we're bound for Botany Bay
There's the captain as is our commander
There's the bosun and all the ship's crew
There's the first and the second class passengers
Knows what we poor convicts go through
Taint leaving old England we cares about
Taint cos we mis-spells what we knows
But because all we light fingered gentry
Hops around with a log on our toes
These seven long years I've been serving now
And seven long more have to stay
All for bashing a bloke down our alley
And taking his ticker away
Oh had I the wings of a turtle dove
I'd soar on my pinions so high
Slap bang to the arms of my Polly love
And in her sweet presence I'd die
Now all my young Dookies and Dutchesses
Take warning from what I've to say
Mind all is your own as you toucheses
Or you'll find us in Botany Bay
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A Rock SongIcehouse - Great Southern Land
Standing at the limit of an endless ocean
stranded like a runaway, lost at sea
city on a rainy day down in the harbour
watching as the grey clouds shadow the bay
looking everywhere 'cause I had to find you
this is not the way that i remember it here
anyone will tell you its a prisoner island
hidden in the summer for a million years
Great Southern Land, burned you black
so you look into the land and it will tell you a story
story 'bout a journey ended long ago
if you listen to the motion of the wind in the mountains
maybe you can hear them talking like I do
". . they're gonna betray, they're gonna forget you
are you gonna let them take you over this way . ."
Great Southern Land, Great Southern Land
you walk alone like a primitive man
and they make it work with sticks and bones
see their hungry eyes, its a hungry home
I hear the sound of the stranger's voices
I see their hungry eyes, their hungry eyes
Great Southern Land, Great Southern Land
they burned you black, black against the ground
Great Southern Land, in the sleeping sun
you walk alone with the ghost of time
they burned you black, black against the ground
and they make it work with rocks and sand
I hear the sound of the stanger's voices
I see their hungry eyes, their hungry eyes
Great Southern Land, Great Southern Land
you walk alone, like a primitive man
you walk alone with the ghost of time
and they burned you black
yeah, they burned you black
Great Southern Land |
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 Comments for Marpessa about Geelong | | | | |
jeffmartinartist Thu Feb 21, 2008 20:02 UTC
Funny thing VT... It never occurs to me to look local. Nice work on Geelong I will use tips before my next visit. | australia2 Sat Feb 16, 2008 00:41 UTC
Great writing and pics all round, Cassie. Hope all is well where you are. Geelong climate a bit warmer than Scandinavia ! C'arn the Cats. Plan ahead for Sep '08 ;-) Laurie. | atufft Sun Jun 10, 2007 05:06 UTC
Interesting town that you're from. I enjoyed the pictures and explanation a lot. | Ekahau Tue Apr 17, 2007 00:44 UTC
Geelong such a beautiful place and to think it could all go up in smoke with a bush fire, very nice Introduction to Geelong thanks. love the story of William Buckley. |
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