My Country from Our Country by The Queensland Tiger

Dorothea Mackellar was born in Sydney, but when young spent a lot of time around the rural area of Gunnedah in New South Wales. Her father was a doctor, and she had received a private education. As a young woman who spoke several languages, she travelled to Europe. When about 20, she found herself living in London, and feeling homesick, and started work on a poem, called “Core of My Heart” , which was eventually published in the The London Spectator magazine in 1908. This poem became famous, but had its name changed to “My Country”

The first verse refers to England, and the way the English feel about their country. Some Australians regarded themselves as English, but Dorothea clearly shows how she felt, especially in the second verse, which has become very well known (quoted)

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged 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 !

In nearly all musical settings, this second verse becomes the chorus of the song. The lyrics below, including the order of the verses, are taken from a website dedicated to Dorothea Mackellar. This tune is by UK duo Jackie Trent and Tony Hatch, who wrote it while living in Australia in the 1980s.

Cello by Natasha Jaffe

Tracklist

11.	My Country	5:17

Videos

Lyrics

===================== LYRICS ==================
My Country (written between 1904 and 1908, published in 1908)
by Dorothea Mackellar (1885 - 1968)
-------------------------------------------------------
The 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.

---------------------- [ CHORUS ] ---------------

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged 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 !

[ Australia for me ! ]
---------------------------------------------------
A stark white ring-barked forest
All tragic to the moon,
The sapphire-misted mountains,
The hot gold hush of noon.
Green tangle of the brushes,
Where 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

---------------------- [ CHORUS ] ---------------

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged 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 !

[ Australia for me ! ]
-------------------------------------------
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.
----------------------------------
An 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.

---------------------- [ CHORUS ] ---------------

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged 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 !

[Australia for me ! x3 ]
====================================

Credits

from Our Country, track released December 17, 2021
Words : Dorothea Mackellar ( 1885 – 1968 )
Tune : Jackie Trent and Tony Hatch
Cello : Natasha Jaffe

License

CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. See the Creative Commons website for details.