• 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 and booklets
  • Ephemera
  • Poetry and songs
  • Slang
  • Timeline
  • Topics
    • Anzac Day
    • Australia Day
    • Australian Aborigines
    • Australianism
    • Australian literature
    • The Eureka Rebellion
    • Explorers
    • Significant events and commemorative dates

Reinforcements [poem, 18 July 1916]

20 October 2013 · Leave a Comment

[Editor: A poem by M. Forrest, written at the time of the First World War. Published in the West Gippsland Gazette, 18 July 1916.]

Reinforcements.

Big men from the Hawkesbury, and brown men from the bush,
Clear-eyed men and great-armed men across the forest’s hush,
And in between the purple hills, and down the hard red road,
They come to lift a shoulder to the Empire’s mighty load;
They come to join the colors now, as their grandsires have done,
To strike a blow for England — and a death-stroke at the Hun!

They saw their comrades, battle-worn, come back by sea and track.
They saw the scars of conflict and the empty sleeve hang slack;
They heard the tales of horror and the awful dirge of war,
And still — they took the forward path, as these had done before.
And there was nothing there to daunt the splendid soul that lives
In every unit for the front that proud Australia gives!

They look into their sweetheart’s eyes, they see the coming tear;
They put aside the clinging hands — “We must be men, my dear!”
And bravely lifts her little chin, and steady grow her hands,
Who gives the treasure of her heart to war in far-off lands.
They touch the mother’s time-lined cheek; they know that nevermore
Perchance may they behold those eyes, that watcher at the door;
And yet they saddle up the horse, they wave a quick good-bye,
They only see one goal ahead — the goal “to dare — or die.”

Lean, hard-limbed, men from Queensland way, men swift with oath and blow,
Soft-mannered clerks, and city chaps — ’tis one and all, they go!
Men with a fortune in the land, and men without a sou,
They have but one straight life to give — to help the Empire through.
Men from beyond the back o’ Bourke, and men from Tenterfield,
Men who know all the backblock trails, except the way to “yield!”
Whose signpost is “For victory,” for whom cross-roads run blind,
Men worthy of the women folk Australians leave behind!

Oh! press your weakly cobber’s hand. He wanted to go, too!
He’s sick because he cannot pass to help the Lion through.
Oh! kiss your girl’s sweet lips
farewell. . . . The boar is yours to hunt!
Australia flings another spear — in units for the front!

— M. Forrest in Sydney “Mail.”



Source:
West Gippsland Gazette (Warragul, Vic.), 18 July 1916, p. 6

Editor’s notes:
empty sleeve = a reference to a wounded soldier, specifically to one who has lost his arm

Hun = Germany; may also refer to German people (or those of German descent), used as a derogatory term

lion = Britain (as the representative emblem of Britain is a lion)

sou = a nickname for a French coin worth 5 centimes, equal to a twentieth of a Franc; the term was often used in slang phraseology to refer to something of low worth or to indicate a lack of money (e.g. “not worth a sou” or “I haven’t got a sou”)

Filed Under: poetry Tagged With: poem, SourceTrove, war poetry and military poetry, World War One, year1916

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

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

Primary Sidebar

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

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

  • Western bush fire: Several crops burnt [5 January 1906]
  • Buy “Australian-Made” [by W. R. Bagnall, 22 June 1928]
  • The Bad Boy [poem regarding Henry Parkes, 12 May 1877]
  • A rod in pickle [political cartoon regarding Henry Parkes, 12 May 1877]
  • “Devil’s luck” [short story, 20 December 1901]

Top Posts & Pages

  • The Man from Snowy River [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • The drover’s wife [by Henry Lawson]
  • The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • C. J. Dennis
  • Clancy of The Overflow [poem by Banjo Paterson]

Categories

Archives

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]

Search this site



For Australia


Copyright © 2022 · Log in