Our Father Land! and wouldst thou know Why we should call it Father Land? It is that Adam here below Was made of earth by Nature's hand; And he our father, made of earth, Hath peopled earth on every hand; And we, in memory of his birth, Do call our country Father Land. At first, in Eden's bowers, they say, No sound of speech had Adam caught, But whistled like a bird all day, -- And maybe 't was for want of thought: But Nature, with resistless laws, Made Adam soon surpass the birds; She gave him lovely Eve because If he'd a wife they must have words. And so the native land, I hold, By male descent is proudly mine; The language, as the tale hath told, Was given in the female line. And thus we see on either hand We name our blessings whence they've sprung; We call our country Father Land, We call our language Mother Tongue. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...EPITAPHS OF THE WAR, 1914-18: A DRIFTER OFF TARENTUM by RUDYARD KIPLING THE NEW COLOSSUS by EMMA LAZARUS ODES II, 14 by QUINTUS HORATIUS FLACCUS TO QUILCA; A COUNTRY HOUSE IN NO GOOD REPAIR by JONATHAN SWIFT THE HIGHER PANTHEISM IN A NUTSHELL by ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE IDYLLS OF THE KING: THE LAST TOURNAMENT by ALFRED TENNYSON CORONATION ODE by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT |