• 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

Voices of Anzac [song by L. E. Homfray, August 1917]

5 February 2022 · Leave a Comment

[Editor: This song by L. E. Homfray was published in The Bush Brother (Dubbo, NSW), August 1917.]

Voices of Anzac.

Upon the shores of Anzac
In many a nameless grave,
Australia’s sons are sleeping,
Her heroes, true and brave.
The call to arms was sounding,
And in youth’s golden day,
These sons of fair Australia
Went forth to join the fray.

And there amid the battle,
Through many a weary night
With wondrous hope and courage,
They still maintained the fight
For love of King and country
They sought to win renown,
And for a nation’s honour
Was each young life laid down

Shame on us as a nation,
If we forget the day;
If from those dear, dead voices
We idly turn away.
And shame be ours for ever,
If we reject the call
To serve our King and country,
Or for their honour fall.

Awake! awake! my brothers,
While yet those voices plead,
Arise and save your country,
In this her hour of need.
And may the God of wisdom
Still lead our armies on,
Till strife and warfare ended,
A nation’s peace is won.

L. E. Homfray.

Tune: Aurelia, or Sir Arthur Sullivan’s Jubilee Hymn.



Source:
The Bush Brother (Dubbo, NSW), August 1917, p. 286 (the date given on the cover of this issue is “August 1917”, although the date given on the banner page is “July, 1917”)

Editor’s notes:
The Bush Brother was a religious publication, which described itself as “A Quarterly Paper conducted by Members of the Brotherhood of the Good Shepherd.” The Brotherhood was “A Society, consisting of Clergy and Laity of the Church of England, formed for the purpose of Ministering to the Spiritual needs of the Dwellers in the Bush Districts of the Bathurst Diocese.”

Filed Under: songs Tagged With: Anzac poetry, L. E. Homfray (author) (1873-1951), patriotic poetry, SourceTrove, year1917

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Your email address will not be published.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

  • Mercenary Mum, by Neryl Joyce [book review]
  • The Year of the Angry Rabbit, by Russell Braddon [book review]
  • 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]

Top Posts & Pages

  • The Man from Ironbark [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • The Man from Snowy River [poem by Banjo Paterson]
  • The drover’s wife [by Henry Lawson]
  • Said Hanrahan [poem by John O’Brien]
  • Australian slang

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