Walter Murdoch (1874–1970). The Oxford Book of Australasian Verse. 1918.
By Bernard ODowd83 . True Americas Message
O
The Word
‘Be true, be brave, be merciful, be free!’
Not you, who, braggart, sent this wan array
Of hell-ships vomiting their Will-to-Slay,
These armoured Hates and pallid Envies we,
’Mid rattled mobs and flags hysteric, see
Tarnish the chaste horizon of our Bay:
Who face hyæna Mammon in his den:
And
To drag the swooning slave from vampire jaws:
Yea,
You singed King George’s beard at Bunker’s Hill.