[Editor: This poem by Marie E. J. Pitt was published in The Horses of the Hills and Other Verses (1911).]
Reveille.
Up! comrades, up! the night has flown,
The dawn breaks dim and grey!
The bugle-call of strife has blown!
Arm! arm you for the fray!
O’er hills which man’s injustice smote,
The People’s hymn we’ll raise,
Shout! every throat, a major note,
Australia’s Marseillaise!
They call our creed a rebel creed,
Our flag a rebel flag,
Who scrawl the autograph of greed
On every wave-worn crag:
Who sow in furrows of their greed
A heritage of scorn,
And bind the bonds of bitter need
On peoples yet unborn:
Who ruthless weave the fateful coil
That binds in bonds of hate
Lean helotry of hopeless toil,
Fat harlotry of State,
Who sow in furrows of their hate
Twin thorns that never fail,
The gilded thieves in Church and State,
The squalid thieves in gaol.
They call our flag a rebel flag,
Our creed a rebel creed,
Who scrawl on every wave-worn crag
The autograph of greed.
O’er hills which man’s injustice smote,
The People’s hymn we’ll raise,
Shout! every throat, a major note,
Australia’s Marseillaise!
Source:
Marie E. J. Pitt, The Horses of the Hills and Other Verses, Melbourne: Specialty Press, 1911, pages 48-49
Editor’s notes:
Marie E. J. Pitt’s poem “Reveille” is a shortened version of her poem “Karma”. There are various differences, including that the 3rd stanza in “Reveille” is comprised of the first half of the 3rd stanza and the second half of the 4th stanza from “Karma” (the other halves of those two stanzas, as well as the 5th stanza, from “Karma” are not included in “Reveille”).
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