• 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
  • Ephemera
  • Poetry & songs
    • Recommended poetry
    • Poetry and songs, 1786-1900
    • Poetry and songs, 1901-1954
    • Rock music and pop music [videos]
    • Early music [videos]
  • Slang
  • Timeline
    • Timeline of Australian history and culture
    • Calendar of Australian history and culture
    • Significant events and commemorative dates
  • Topics

Boys! Listen! The Empire is calling [poem “Australia’s Call” by Irene Jones, 5 August 1915]

28 March 2022 · Leave a Comment

[Editor: This poem (or song) by Irene Jones was published in the Mudgee Guardian and North-Western Representative (Mudgee, NSW), 5 August 1915 (during the First World War, 1914-1918).]

Boys! Listen!

The Empire is calling.

The following appropriate and inspiring verses, from the pen of a local young lady, should surely touch the chord of patriotic sentiment and appeal to the gallant instincts of the Australian boys who have not responded to the call of their noble, heroic comrades at Gallipoli:—

Australia’s Call.

Listen! The Empire is calling,
Let us fight for our country or die.
Though thousands of heroes are falling,
Our ensign will e’er float on high.

Many brave lads from Australia
Have fought in the strife and have died;
Whilst others are bearing the honors
That England alone gives with pride.

Oh! many true hearts have been broken,
For the brother and son o’er the sea;
But the same noble hearts are joining
In the cause of the just and the free.

For listen! the Empire is calling,
Let us fight for our country or die;
Though thousands of heroes are falling,
Our ensign will e’er float on high.

Who’ll be the next from Australia?
Oh, who’ll be the next to enlist?
If a man gives his life for his country,
Surely nothing is greater than this!

We! We! hear the thousands of voices
That are answering in chorus back,
God save the King and the Empire,
WE will fight ’neath the Union Jack.

’Tis the ensign of freedom and valor,
’Tis the flag of the brave and the true;
Three cheers for the dear old banner,
Our colors — the red, white and blue!

— IRENE JONES.



Source:
Mudgee Guardian and North-Western Representative (Mudgee, NSW), 5 August 1915, p. 37

Also published in:
The Democrat (Lithgow, NSW), 21 August 1915, p. 1 [“from the pen of a Dunedoo young lady”]

Editor’s notes:
e’er = (vernacular) an archaic contraction of “ever”

Empire = in the context of early Australia, the British Empire

ensign = a flag, banner, or standard; a flag which is used to show the country of origin, or country of allegiance, of a base, building, person, place, unit, or ship; a national flag, or a variation of a national flag; a flag, the design of which is based upon a national flag, although with a distinctive alteration (such as a different background colour; an added badge, emblem, or symbol; or superimposed characters or letters), used by a branch of the military services, an organisation, or a unit or section of a larger body

’neath = (vernacular) beneath

o’er = (archaic) over (pronounced the same as “oar”, “or”, and “ore”)

’tis = (archaic) a contraction of “it is”

Filed Under: poetry Tagged With: Gallipoli campaign, patriotic poetry, SourceTrove, World War One (1914-1918), year1915

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

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

Primary Sidebar

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

Search this site

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

  • A billabong: Goulbourn River [postcard, 27 November 1907]
  • Dear Mac [postcard, early 20th Century]
  • The New to the Old [poem by Randolph Bedford, 3 January 1896]
  • New Year greetings [postcard, early 20th Century]
  • New Year greetings [postcard, early 20th Century]

Top Posts & Pages

  • Under the Southern Cross I Stand [the Australian cricket team’s victory song]
  • Timeline of Australian history and culture
  • Australian slang
  • Click Go the Shears [folk music, lyrics; traditional Australian song, 1890s]
  • The Man from Snowy River [poem by Banjo Paterson]

Archives

Categories

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]

Recent Comments

  • Annie Crestani on Under the Southern Cross I Stand [the Australian cricket team’s victory song]
  • Peter Pearsall on The Clarence [poem by Jack Moses]
  • Trevor Hurst on Timeline of Australian history and culture
  • Ju on Under the Southern Cross I Stand [the Australian cricket team’s victory song]
  • David Carroll on Queensland [poem by Philip Durham Lorimer]

For Australia

Copyright © 2023 · Log in