Poem - John B. O'Hara (1904)

Prediction Poetry

Australia's Call to Arms

By John B. O'Hara

1904

Sons of ocean-girdled islands,

Where the southern billows sigh,

Wake! arise! the dread Bellona

Speeds her chariot through the sky;

Yea, the troubled star of danger

On Britannia shineth down—

Wake! arise! maintain her glory

And renown, and renown!

In the hour of Britain's peril

Shall we falter, while the fires

Still are glowing on our altars

From the ashes of our sires?

Ho! brave hearts, for Britain's honour,

For the lustre of her crown,

Wake! arise! maintain her glory

And renown, and renown!

Ye are children of a nation,

Ye are scions of the sires

That of old were in the vanguard

Of the world's wide empires!

With the spirit of your fathers,

With the fullness of their fame,

Wake! arise! maintain the honour

Of her name, of her name!

Long to Britain may "the crimson

Thread of kinship" bind our wings!—

Crimson thread that slowly slackens

As the newer race upsprings:

Sons of heroes, men of courage

That reverse could never tame,

Wake! arise! maintain the glory

Of her name, of her name!

See! the star of ancient Britain,

That hath never known decline,

By your valour lit up newly,

With a glow of fiercer shine,

O'er the burning sands of Afric,

With your loyalty aflame;

Once again maintain the glory

Of her name, of her name!