• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

The Institute of Australian Culture

Heritage, history, and heroes; literature, legends, and larrikins

  • Home
  • Articles
  • Biographies
  • Books and booklets
  • Ephemera
  • Poetry and songs
  • Slang
  • Timeline
  • Topics
    • Anzac Day
    • Australia Day
    • Australian Aborigines
    • Australianism
    • Australian literature
    • The Eureka Rebellion
    • Explorers
    • Significant events and commemorative dates

Ballad of the Drums [poem by Grant Hervey]

2 June 2012 · Leave a Comment

[Editor: This poem by Grant Hervey was published in Australians Yet and Other Verses, 1913.]

Ballad of the Drums

Lo ! the thresher-drums are booming ’mid the hills at early morning —
’Tis the wheat that’s rolling mill-ward in a tawny, yellow stream !
Near the dawn our engine-whistles give their hasty toots of warning,
And the sheaves fly from the stack-tops as our pitchforks flash and gleam !
Marching down the teeming valley of the winding Wannon River —
Marching down upon the harvest that is waiting for our tread ;
Ho ! our threshers lift their drum-notes when the heat-rays dance and quiver —
Aye ! our drums throb on like thunder when the sun flames overhead !

Hear the music — roaring music that our rolling drums are playing
’Tis the Anthem of a Nation that is marching bravely on !
In mine ear the roaring threshers are forever grandly saying :
“March ! Australians — fight and conquer — care is dead, and fear is gone !”
As I tend my rocking engine all the world rolls on in glory —
Lo ! the pistons and the fly-wheel sing a splendid marching song ;
Aye they tell me that my country shall be famous yet in story —
For the wheat shall raise up Workers for the Nation stout and strong !

Ho ! my “blues” may be all oily, but I feel a king, right royal —
And my oil-can is a sceptre that controls the mighty earth !
Lo ! I thresh the food for millions — for the millions true and loyal —
And my hand hath fed the people in the days of drought and dearth !
There are kingships waiting for you on the thresher decks, my brothers —
Yea, the thresher deck were better than a crumbling, effete Throne ;
They are kings who flail the wheat out to sustain the hungry others —
And the drums extol our kingship in a roaring, major tone !

We are kings who rule in earnest — lo ! the mills are waiting for us —
We control the vastest kingdom that the world has ever seen ;
All the world strains for the music that we thunder forth in chorus —
For it lives upon the substance that we sweaty monarchs glean !
Better far to rule in denim than to rot in purple vestures —
Aye, the wheat-stacks left behind us are the Symbol of our might.
Let the politicians wrangle — let them make their signs and gestures —
For the men who feed the people are the kings in solid right !

Lo ! the thresher-drums are booming ’mid the hills at early morning —
’Tis the Wheat that’s rolling mill-ward in a tawny, yellow stream !
Near the dawn our engine-whistles give their hasty toots of warning,
And the sheaves fly from the stack-tops as our pitchforks flash and gleam !
Marching down the teeming valley of the winding Wannon River —
Marching down upon the Harvest that is waiting for our tread ;
Ho! our threshers lift their drum-notes when the heat-rays dance and quiver —
Aye! our Drums throb on like thunder when the sun flames overhead !




Source:
Grant Hervey. Australians Yet and Other Verses, Thomas C. Lothian, Melbourne, 1913, pages 14-17

Filed Under: poetry Tagged With: Australians Yet and Other Verses (Grant Hervey 1913), Grant Hervey (author) (1880-1933), labour poetry, poem, SourceArchiveOrg, year1913

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Australian flag, 100hThe Institute of Australian Culture
Heritage, history, and heroes. Literature, legends, and larrikins. Stories, songs, and sages.

Featured books

The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses, by Banjo Paterson A Book for Kids, by C. J. Dennis  The Bulletin Reciter: A Collection of Verses for Recitation from The Bulletin The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, by C. J. Dennis The Complete Inner History of the Kelly Gang and Their Pursuers, by J. J. Kenneally The Foundations of Culture in Australia, by P. R. Stephensen The Australian Crisis, by C. H. Kirmess Such Is Life, by Joseph Furphy
More books (full text)

Featured lists

Timeline of Australian history and culture
A list of significant Australiana
Significant events and commemorative dates
Australian slang
Books (full text)
Australian literature
Rock music and pop music (videos)
Folk music and bush music (videos)
Early music (videos)
Recommended poetry
Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
Poetry and songs, 1901-1954
Australian explorers
Topics
Links

Featured posts

Advance Australia Fair: How the song became the Australian national anthem
Brian Cadd [music videos and biography]
Ned Kelly: Australian bushranger
Under the Southern Cross I Stand [the Australian cricket team’s victory song]

Some Australian authors

E. J. Brady
John Le Gay Brereton
C. J. Dennis
Mary Hannay Foott
Joseph Furphy
Mary Gilmore
Charles Harpur
Grant Hervey
Lucy Everett Homfray
Rex Ingamells
Henry Kendall
“Kookaburra”
Henry Lawson
Jack Moses
“Dryblower” Murphy
John Shaw Neilson
John O’Brien (Patrick Joseph Hartigan)
“Banjo” Paterson
Marie E. J. Pitt
A. G. Stephens
P. R. Stephensen
Agnes L. Storrie (Agnes L. Kettlewell)

Recent Posts

  • Old Granny Sullivan [booklet by John Shaw Neilson, 1915]
  • Mercenary Mum, by Neryl Joyce [book review]
  • The Year of the Angry Rabbit, by Russell Braddon [book review]
  • Western bush fire: Several crops burnt [5 January 1906]
  • Buy “Australian-Made” [by W. R. Bagnall, 22 June 1928]

Top Posts & Pages

  • The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • The drover’s wife [by Henry Lawson]
  • Australian slang
  • The Man from Snowy River [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • Poetry and songs, 1786-1900

Categories

Archives

Posts of note

The Bastard from the Bush [poem, circa 1900]
A Book for Kids [by C. J. Dennis, 1921]
Click Go the Shears [traditional Australian song, 1890s]
Core of My Heart [“My Country”, poem by Dorothea Mackellar, 24 October 1908]
Freedom on the Wallaby [poem by Henry Lawson, 16 May 1891]
The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]
Nationality [poem by Mary Gilmore, 12 May 1942]
The Newcastle song [music video, sung by Bob Hudson]
No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest [poem by Mary Gilmore, 29 June 1940]
Our pipes [short story by Henry Lawson]
Rommel’s comments on Australian soldiers [1941-1942]
Shooting the moon [short story by Henry Lawson]

Search this site



For Australia


Copyright © 2022 · Log in