This slim bound volume documents the young Dorothea Mackellar’s literary output in her breakthrough year, and includes the only known manuscript version of the first draft of her most iconic work, 'Core of My Heart' (later ‘My Country’), Australia’s best loved and most quoted poem.

The 'Core of My Heart' manuscript is unusual in that it records the poem exactly as it was originally written down by the author, who is known to have worked up her initial ideas, revising the text of her poems in letters to family and friends, before transcribing a ‘clean’, final draft of her work into poetry notebooks like this one, compiled chronologically each year. This volume, ‘Verses 1907-1908’, is particularly significant as it contains a unique archive of the poet’s creative output during this important year in her literary career.

Mackellar made revisions to ‘Core of My Heart’ prior to its first printing in The Spectator (5 September 1908, p.7) in which minor alterations to several lines in the second stanza are apparent. She continued to refine the text of her poem, including changing the title to ‘My Country’, resulting in slightly different versions appearing in subsequent re-printings of the poem.

The impact of the debut of this work on Australian literary culture was immediate, and ‘My Country’ found its mark with readers of all ages and levels of society, fanning nascent nationalism in the post-Federation and pre-war eras. Through this single literary work, generations of Australians have come to cherish the poem’s lyrical expression of the author’s relationship to, and love of, the land, as well as her articulation of pride in her identity as an Australian.

In the 21st century, ‘My Country’ remains in the collective consciousness of Australians. Resilience in the face of natural disaster, as described in Mackellar’s iconic verse, has come to be seen as part of the Australian national character.