• 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

No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest [poem by Mary Gilmore, 29 June 1940]

4 May 2015 · 7 Comments

[Editor: This poem by Mary Gilmore was published in The Australian Women’s Weekly, 29 June 1940, during the Second World War (1939-1945).]

No foe shall gather our harvest

Sons of the mountains of Scotland,
Clansmen from correi and kyle,
Bred of the moors of England,
Children of Erin’s green isle,
We stand four-square to the tempest,
Whatever the battering hail —
No foe shall gather our harvest,
Or sit on our stockyard rail
.

Our women shall walk in honor,
Our children shall know no chain,
This land that is ours forever
The invader shall strike at in vain.
Anzac! … Bapaume! … and the Marne! …
Could ever the old blood fail?
No foe shall gather our harvest,
Or sit on our stockyard rail
.

So hail-fellow-met we muster,
And hail-fellow-met fall in,
Wherever the guns may thunder,
Or the rocketing “air mail” spin!
Born of the soil and the whirlwind,
Though death itself be the gale —
No foe shall gather our harvest,
Or sit on our stockyard rail
.

We are the sons of Australia,
Of the men who fashioned the land,
We are the sons of the women
Who walked with them, hand in hand;
And we swear by the dead who bore us,
By the heroes who blazed the trail,
No foe shall gather our harvest,
Or sit on our stockyard rail
.

— MARY GILMORE.

At 75, Australian poet and writer Mary Gilmore, Dame of the British Empire, has written one of the finest Australian songs of the war. It appears above. “I’m too old to do many of the things I would like to do to win the war,” she said, “but I can still write. Here is a song for the men and women of Australia.” The inspiring note in the song is so vividly Australian that The Women’s Weekly is proud to present it to readers.



Source:
The Australian Women’s Weekly (Sydney, NSW), 29 June 1940, p. 5

Editor’s notes:
Anzac = Anzac Cove, a cove on the western coast of the Gallipoli peninsula (part of the section of Eastern Europe held by Turkey), located on the European side of the Dardanelles strait; where the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) landed and fought against the Turkish army in 1915

Bapaume = a town in northern France, which was captured by the German army, and regained by Allied forces (including Australians) in March 1917; it was recaptured by the Germans a week later, and subsequently regained by the Allies in September 1918

correi = a steep-sided hollow on a hillside or mountainside, especially referring to one in the mountains of Scotland (also spelt as “corrie”; also called a “cirque” or “cwm”)

Erin = Ireland

kyle = (Scottish) a narrow sea channel or strait (from the Gaelic “caol”, meaning “narrow”)

Marne = the Marne River in France, around which the Second Battle of the Marne was fought in 1918, between the Allied forces (including Australians) and the German army

Filed Under: poetry Tagged With: Mary Gilmore (1865-1962) (author), poem, recommended poetry, SourceTrove, World War Two (1939-1945), year1940

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Mel and Susie says

    12 September 2015 at 20:41

    Keen to discover when the words of this poem were changed (V1 L2 changed to “Welshmen of coomb and defile” and V2 L5 changed to “Anzac, Tobruk and Kokoda”) and whether Mary Gilmore made the changes or someone else (George Mackaness?), would really appreciate any info, thanks Mel and Susie

    Reply
    • IAC says

      13 September 2015 at 14:57

      According to the The Australian Women’s Weekly of 22 April 1953 (p. 24) it was Mary Gilmore who made the changes.
      “Dame Mary has altered the original version slightly. Here is the amended song:”
      http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article41408379
      [The new version included the lines “Welshmen from crag and defile” and “Anzac! . . . Tobruk! . . . and Kokoda! . . .”.]

      The new version had appeared three months earlier, in The Catholic Weekly (Sydney, NSW), 22 January 1953 (p. 7).
      http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article147086647

      When the poem was set to music (see the NLA catalogue entry for the 1952 song: http://trove.nla.gov.au/version/7788633), that would have provided a good opportunity for changes to be made (but the song was not necessarily the impetus for any changes; unless evidence can be provided to the contrary). Unfortunately, a copy of the sheet music is not online.

      It is interesting to note that a 1945 printing of the poem included the line “Anzac! . . . Tobruk, and Kokoda”, but without changing the line “Clansmen from corrie and kyle”.
      See: The Dubbo Liberal and Macquarie Advocate (NSW), 18 August 1945, p. 1
      http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article133033379

      Reply
  2. Peter W Harris says

    15 June 2016 at 16:48

    Why is there no mention of Dr Percy Jones , Dr of music, who wrote the music for this sterling poem?

    Reply
    • IAC says

      9 October 2016 at 06:40

      You are quite correct, Percy Jones wrote the music for the song of “No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest”, which is on the National Library website at http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/6764868.
      However, Percy Jones wasn’t mentioned in the above article, as it is a republication of an item from The Australian Women’s Weekly (29 June 1940), rather than being a research article about the work itself.

      Reply
  3. ROSS HARRISON says

    13 February 2019 at 11:01

    I would like to point out that the line “Our women shall walk in honor,” should that not be HONOUR the correct English spelling as I have seen in other copies of Mary’s poem. I would assume that with Mary being of Scottish heritage that would have been the original spelling

    Reply
    • IAC says

      1 March 2019 at 05:39

      The source of this particular copy of the poem was The Australian Women’s Weekly, 29 June 1940, which published it with the word spelt as “honor”.

      However, when the poem was included in Mary Gilmore’s 1954 collection of poetry, Fourteen Men, it was printed with the word spelt as “honour” (page 26).

      The usual spelling of the word in British Commonwealth countries was “honour” – and therefore, as you indicate in your comment, it is likely that Gilmore’s original spelling of the word was “honour”.

      Reply
  4. Dave Morley says

    30 September 2021 at 09:44

    Interestingly, “No foe shall gather our harvest, Or sit on our stockyard rail,” was written on the left edge of the Australian 1993 Series ten dollar note, but was removed from the latest issue of banknotes because the phrase was thought to be unwelcoming and threatening to newcomers to Australia.

    Reply

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

  • The Man from Snowy River [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • The Bastard from the Bush [poem, circa 1900]
  • Australian slang
  • Rommel’s comments on Australian soldiers [1941-1942]
  • The Man from Ironbark [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