When the dawn creeps grey to the glad new year, And the South wakes up from its sleep,My laughing song is the first you will hear Wherever the South winds sweep.
No magpie, parrot, or cockatoo Sings ever so early as I;From morn till eve as the year runs through I laugh as I live-or die.
Ho, ho! Ha, ha! with a glad refrain, Which many mistake for scorn;But who finds disdain in my joyous strain Was never a poet born.
For I am Australia"s genius,
And a message for all I bring-
As the months flit by, keep your head up high,And laugh !
Laugh!
Laugh at everything!
- E. S. Emerson
About the Author.-Ernest Sando Emerson was born at Ballarat, Victoria, in 1870, and was educated at the Faraday-street School, Carlton. After working as clerk and station book-keeper, he took to journalism and was for a time editor of The Sunday Chronicle in Perth and The Worker in Brisbane. His published works include A Shanty Entertainment, Santa Claus and a Sundial, and An Australian Bird Calendar (George Robertson and Co.).
About the Poem.-When does the kookaburra laugh? "Australia"s genius" means the guiding spirit of Australia. What is the kookaburra"s message?
