The poem
Do you think, you slaves of a thousand years to poverty, wealth and pride, You can crush the spirit that has been free in a land that's new and wide? When you've scattered the last of the farmer bands, and the war for a while is over, You will hold the land — ay, you'll hold the land — the land that your rifles cover.
Till your gold has levelled each mountain range where a wounded man can hide, Till your gold has lighted the moonless night on the plains where the rebels ride; Till the future is proved, and the past is bribed from the son of the land's dead lover — You may hold the land — you may hold the land just as far as your rifles cover.