“My Country” Summary

“My Country” Themes

• 

  Patriotism and Pride

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• 

  Wildness vs. Tameness

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “My Country”

• Lines 1-4

  The love of field and coppice,
  Of green and shaded lanes,
  Of ordered woods and gardens
  Is running in your veins—

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 5-8

  Strong love of grey-blue distance,
  Brown streams and soft dim skies—
  I know but cannot share it,
  My love is otherwise.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-12

  I love a sunburnt country,
  A land of sweeping plains,
  Of ragged mountain ranges,
  Of droughts and flooding rains.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 13-16

  I love her far horizons,
  I love her jewel-sea,
  Her beauty and her terror—
  The wide brown land for me!

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 17-20

  The stark white ring-barked forests
  All tragic to the moon,
  The sapphire-misted mountains,
  The hot gold hush of noon.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 21-24

  Green tangle of the brushes,
  Where lithe lianas coil,
  And orchid-laden tree ferns
  Smother the crimson soil.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 25-28

  Core of my heart, my country!
  Her pitiless blue sky,
  When sick at heart, around us,
  We see the cattle die—

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 29-32

  But then the grey clouds gather,
  And we can bless again
  The drumming of an army,
  The steady, soaking rain.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 33-36

  Core of my heart, my country!
  Land of the Rainbow Gold,
  For flood and fire and famine,
  She pays us back threefold—

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 37-40

  Over the thirsty paddocks,
  Watch, after many days,
  The filmy veil of greenness
  That thickens as we gaze.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 41-44

  An opal-hearted country,
  A wilful, lavish land—
  All you who have not loved her,
  You will not understand—

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 45-48

  Though earth holds many splendours,
  Wherever I may die,
  I know to what brown country
  My homing thoughts will fly.

  

  

  

  

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“My Country” Symbols

• 

  The Heart

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“My Country” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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• Anaphora

  

  

  

  

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• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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• Assonance

  

  

  

  

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• Antithesis

  

  

  

  

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• Repetition

  

  

  

  

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• Asyndeton

  

  

  

  

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• Personification

  

  

  

  

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“My Country” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Coppice
• Otherwise
• Sweeping
• Jewel-sea
• Ring-barked
• Sapphire-misted
• Brushes
• Lithe
• Lianas
• Orchid-laden
• Tree ferns
• Rainbow Gold
• Threefold
• Paddocks
• Filmy
• Opal-hearted
• Wilful
• Lavish
• Homing

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “My Country”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“My Country” Speaker

“My Country” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “My Country”

More “My Country” Resources

• External Resources

  • The Poet Reads the Poem — Listen to "My Country" recited by Dorothea Mackellar.

  • The Poet's Life — A biography of Mackellar, courtesy of the Australian Dictionary of Biography.

  • A Film About the Poet — A short film about Mackellar, via the State Library of New South Wales.

  • An Interview with the Poet — A 1965 interview in which Mackellar recalls the writing of "My Country."

  • The Land of "My Country" — An article by Mackellar's biographer arguing for protection of the natural landscape that inspired "My Country."

  • The Poet's Literary Legacy — Visit the official website of the Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Awards, which includes further information and resources related to the poet.