As Far As Your Rifles Cover

Henry Lawson

Do you think, you slaves of a thousand years to poverty, wealth and pride,
You can crush the spirit that has been free in a land that's new and wide?
When you've scattered the last of the farmer bands, and the war for a while is over,
You will hold the land  ay, you'll hold the land  the land that your rifles cover.

Till your gold has levelled each mountain range where a wounded man can hide,
Till your gold has lighted the moonless night on the plains where the rebels ride;
Till the future is proved, and the past is bribed from the son of the land's dead lover
You may hold the land  you may hold the land just as far as your rifles cover.

Next 10 Poems

• Henry Lawson : At The Beating Of A Drum
• Henry Lawson : Australian Bards And Bush Reviewers
• Henry Lawson : Australian Engineers
• Henry Lawson : Australia's Peril
• Henry Lawson : Ben Duggan
• Henry Lawson : Black Bonnet
• Henry Lawson : Borderland
• Henry Lawson : Cameron's Heart
• Henry Lawson : Cherry- Tree Inn
• Henry Lawson : Corny Bill

Previous 10 Poems

• Henry Lawson : Andy's Gone With Cattle
• Henry Lawson : After All
• Henry Lawson : Above Eurunderee
• Henry Lawson : A Song Of The Republic
• Henry Lawson : A Song Of Brave Men
• Henry Lawson : A Prouder Man Than You
• D. H. Lawrence : Worm Either Way
• D. H. Lawrence : Winter In The Boulevard
• D. H. Lawrence : Willy Wet-leg
• D. H. Lawrence : Whales Weep Not!