Poem - Jessie Pope

Anzac

By Jessie Pope

We know that you’re sportsmen, with reason,

 At footer and cricket you’re crack;

I haven’t forgotten the season

 When we curled up before the “All Blacks.”

In the matter of wielding the “willow,”

We own, to our cost, that you’re it,

The “ashes” you’ve borne o’er the billow—

Though they’re home again now, for a bit.

There are weightier matters to settle

 To-day, amid bullets and shells;

And the world stands amazed at the mettle

 You’ve shown in the far Dardanelles.

The marvellous feat of your landing

 Your exploits by field and by deed,

Your charges that brooked no withstanding,

 Though you poured out the best of your blood.

You left your snug homesteads “down under”;

The prosperous life of your land,

And staggered the Turks with your thunder,

 To give the Old Country a hand.

For dare-devil work we may book you,

 You’re ready and keen to get to it.

If a job is impossible, look you,

 The boys from “down under” will do it.