Classic Poem

Sons of Foreign Fathers
Silent in the crowd!
While the tempest gathers
'Neath the lurid cloud;
You have many reasons
To be brave and proud.

Proud because von Müller,
With a heart of gold,
Did his thankless duty
Like a knight of old—
Proud because your country
Needs not to be told.

Sons of Foreign Fathers
In the homes they made
When the Bush was darkest—
Asking no man's aid—
Long before the railway
To the west was laid.

Sons of Foreign Fathers,
While the world is mad,
And the rest around you
Seem content and glad,
You have many reasons
To be strong and sad—

Hearing in the gum-leaves
Ceaseless murmuring
Of the croons of Childhood
Memory can bring:
Of the songs of Rhineland
Mothers used to sing.

Sons of Foreign Fathers,
What are you to do?
For our common country
Fight and see it through!
All shall be adjusted;
(Mine was foreign too.)

For an age, or season,
War, like life, must cease,
Hatred be forgotten,
Fortune bring release.
Maybe, from Australia
Flies the Dove of Peace.