[Editor: This poem by Dorothea Mackellar was published in The Armidale Chronicle (Armidale, NSW), 7 August 1915.]
Australia’s Men.
There are some that go for love of a fight
And some for love of a land,
And some for a dream of the world set free
Which they barely understand,
A dream of the world set free from Hate —
But splendidly, one and all,
Danger they drink as ’twere wine of Life
And jest as they reel and fall.
Clean aims, rare faculties, strength and youth,
They have poured them freely forth
For the sake of the sun-steeped land they left
And the far green isle in the North.
What can we do to be worthy of them,
Now hearts are breaking for pride?
Give comfort at least to the wounded men
And the kin of the men that died.
Source:
The Armidale Chronicle (Armidale, NSW), 7 August 1915, p. 7 (no author mentioned)
Also published in:
W. D. [William Dunseath] Eaton (editor), The War in Verse and Prose, Chicago: T. S. Denison, 1918, p. 96
Editor’s notes:
W. D. Eaton’s book acknowledged Dorothea Mackellar as the author, and gave the following introduction to the poem:
“Miss Mackellar is the daughter of Sir Charles Mackellar, Chairman of the Bank of New South Wales. Acknowledgment is due Dr. George Cooke-Adams, formerly an officer in the Australian naval forces, through whose courtesy her verses are presented here.”
Old spelling/words in the original text:
’twere (it were)
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