Lilburn cast Prodigal Country, his only full-length choral work, in a continuous swirling movement, which, like a winding river, creates ever-changing patterns that are slow and undisturbed until the flow quickens its pace and eddies appear that break into a turbulent wake. This special shape arises from the rhythm of alternating feelings of familiarity and strangeness evoked in the poems he chose to set, namely Robin Hyde's 'Journey from New Zealand', Allen Curnow's 'New Zealand City', and Walt Whitman's 'Song of Myself'.