Dorothea Mackellar's My Country
A Centenary Celebration of One of Australia’s Best Known Poems
Feb 25, 2009
To celebrate one hundred years since English magazine The Spectator published Dorothea Mackellar’s poem, accomplished photographer and television journalist Peter Luck has produced a spectacular collection of photographs to compliment the beauty of the poem itself. Dorothea Mackellar’s My Country: a centenary celebration 1908 – 2008 (Pier 9, 2008) offers not only a celebration of the poem itself, but also brief insights into the life of the poet.
Dorothea Mackellar
Born in Sydney in 1885, Isobel Marion Dorothea Mackellar was the only daughter of physician and Senator Sir Charles Kinnaird Mackellar and his wife Marion. Dorothea’s upbringing was privileged. She moved in elite circles as a socialite and her family owned significant property both in Sydney and in rural New South Wales.
Mackellar began writing her iconic poem in 1904 with the first version to be published four years letter under the title ‘Core of my Heart’. The poem was included in The Closed Door, Mackellar’s first anthology of poems published in Australia in 1911.
A Celebration of Australia’s Unique Landscape
While generations of Australian students have recited the poem in class, many still forget that the poem does not begin with the iconic and familiar lines:
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains
Reflecting the inspiration of the poem, a frustration with the many early Australians who felt more allegiance and affection for the mother country of England than their homeland of Australia, the first stanza refers to the English countryside.
The love of field and coppice,
Of green and shaded lanes,
Of ordered woods and gardens
Is running in your veins,
The stanza ends with Mackellar’s statement “My love is otherwise” and she then continues with five stanzas celebrating the colours, contrasts, landscape and harsh beauty of Australia.
Peter Luck
While Mackellar’s poem stands alone as a work of art, Peter Luck has brought to this centenary edition a collection of stunning landscape photographs that are a perfect visual accompaniment to the poem.
Luck has been involved in the Australian media industry for more than 40 years as a television journalist and photographer. He has presented and produced many well-known current affairs programs, is the author of ten books and his photographic works are included in collections of the National Portrait Gallery, the National Library of Australia and the State Library of New South Wales.
An Iconic Australian Poem
The longevity and popularity of the poem are perhaps explained by the fact that it is not merely lyrically beautiful but also a no-holds-barred description of the challenges facing Australians – harsh droughts and bushfires, flooding rains and merciless heat – as well as the beauty and visual impact of the landscape.
Dorothea Mackellar’s My Country is a beautiful gift book for ex-pat Australians, international visitors and for anyone who loves the Australian landscape. With a separate photograph accompanying each line of the poem from the second stanza onwards, this book compliments Mackellar’s intent to celebrate all that is beautiful and individual about her homeland of Australia.
Dorothea Mackellar’s My Country (ISBN: 978-17419-6281-9. 95 pages)
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