• 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

From Aussie to Sammy [poem, 16 February 1918]

8 April 2014 · Leave a Comment

[Editor: A poem published in Aussie: The Australian Soldiers’ Magazine, no. 2, 16 February 1918.]

From Aussie to Sammy.

Say, how do, old cobber, give us yer mit!
Pleased to meet you I certainly am.
We can now pull together in doing our bit,
Said the Aussie to proud Uncle Sam.
We’ve both got some stars on our banners, you know,
And I guess that our blood’s the same hue,
And the old Southern Cross shining under below
Sends a warm greeting ray out to you.
We are absolute glad that you’ve joined in the fray,
And have jerried to Fritz’s true light.
You can rest quite assured — on the odds I will lay —
Now he’s up against something to fight.
We’ve seen lots of scrapping these three years or more,
And we’ve stoushed him — yes, time after time —
And with your mighty help I guess he’ll feel sore
When he’s knocked back to hell o’er the Rhine.
So when you hop over the trenches with us,
Pay no heed to his “Kamerad” mania,
But get into him with yer bayonet, the cuss,
And remember the sunk “Lusitania!”
You can never forgive such a treacherous hound —
Giving that name insults any dog —
And a ripe lasting friendship square dinkum we’ll found
When we’ve passed through the war’s grimy fog.

John T. Barrat.



Source:
Aussie: The Australian Soldiers’ Magazine, no. 2, 16 February 1918, page 12

Editor’s notes:
Lusitania = the RMS Lusitania was a British non-military ship torpedoed by a German submarine on its journey from America to the Britain, sinking on 7 May 1915 off the Irish coast, causing the deaths of 1195 crew and passengers (out of 1959 aboard), including 128 citizens of the USA, an incident which played a part in convincing the USA to join the side of the Allies in World War One (however, the Germans considered that, as the ship was carrying ammunition to Britain, the Lusitania was an “auxiliary war ship”, and so had, prior to the ship leaving America, advertised in American newspapers that “vessels flying the flag of Great Britain, or any of her allies, are liable to destruction in those waters”)
See: 1) “Deadly cargo and the falsified manifests”, Lusitania Online (accessed 9 March 2014)
2) Jennifer Rosenberg, “Sinking of the Lusitania”, About.com (accessed 9 March 2014)
3) “RMS Lusitania”, Wikipedia (accessed 9 March 2014)

Filed Under: poetry Tagged With: Aussie magazine issue 2, poem, publication Aussie: The Australian Soldiers’ Magazine, SourceIACLibrary, year1918

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

  • To Australia [poem by Ruby Jean Stephenson, 18 November 1943]
  • [General news items] [4 April 1912]
  • [Australia has had more than its share of shipping disasters of late] [4 April 1912]
  • [Probably Professor Marshall Hall was right] [4 April 1912]
  • Gold-seekers of the Fifties [1 July 1899]

Top Posts & Pages

  • The Man from Snowy River [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • Taking His Chance [poem by Henry Lawson]
  • Our pipes [short story by Henry Lawson]
  • The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • Australian slang

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

  • IAC on How M’Ginnis Went Missing [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • Stephen on How M’Ginnis Went Missing [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • IAC on The late Louisa Lawson [by George Black, 2 October 1920]
  • Percy Delouche on Freedom on the Wallaby [poem by Henry Lawson, 16 May 1891]
  • Phil on The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]

For Australia

Copyright © 2023 · Log in